


Tell The World

by AuthorA97



Series: Fallen Star Series [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gaslighting, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, No Sex, No Smut, Psychological Torture, The Year That Never Was (Doctor Who), Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:15:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 73,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorA97/pseuds/AuthorA97
Summary: Let's tell the world all the things I've doneI've got a song and had a smile so brightI'll make you wish I was here tonight(Rated M for mature themes- read the tags. No slash/lemon!)
Relationships: The Master/Lucy Saxon
Series: Fallen Star Series [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/768210
Kudos: 10
Collections: Spencer Saga Series





	1. Road To Hell

_Once upon a time there was a cold dark cell._

_Don’t ask where._

_Don’t ask when._

_She’s on the road to hell._

_It was hard times._

_It was a world of lords and men._

==TTW==

He took her to Utopia first.

Terra was made to watch- watch humanity fall apart.

Just as she did once, oh so long ago.

She never liked the smell of burning humans.

And later...she would always feel numb at it.

But for now...now...for this time...Terra would cry.

==TTW==

_It’s an old song._

_An old tale from way back when._

_And we’re gonna sing it again._

==TTW==

There was Wiggle Room.

Terra had tried- tried so hard- fought so long- to fight it.

The Master had warned Terra. 

One wrong move: Humanity would die again by her hand.

Terra had no choice.

In the course of two weeks (time doesn’t exist on the TARDIS when in transit) Terra became All-Mother to the Toclefane.

_She always wanted to be a mother...wasn’t that sad?_

==TTW==

_“Do you want to know what happens tomorrow afternoon?”_

_“Besides my death by stress?”_

_“A bride will be transported. Oh, it will be the first of many things transported. The hospital will go next- a lot goes wrong for Miss Sarah Jane- Torchwood Three has some major staff changes- good for it, those were overdue. Things will start. Things will end. The beats of a butterfly couldn't change them now. Nor will be the crushing of one.”_

_“So can we go?”_

_“We still have work to do.”_

_“I know. Why do you think I came looking for you?”_

_“_ Saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit.”

 _“I’ll pretend that I understood what you were saying. And I translate that to,_ ‘let’s go’. _"_

 _"That's_ abeamus _."_

 _“Okay_ now _I hate you.”_

==TTW==

Terra sobbed when she fixed up Creet into a Toclafane.

The Master laughed.

==TTW==

_It’s a sad song_

_It’s a tragedy._

==TTW==

Gingers are said to have no souls.

As Terra finished another hundred Toclefane, her soul chipped away.

Bit.

By bit.

By bit.

By bit.

_Bitbitbitbit_

_Bitbitbitbit_

_Bitbitbitbit_

_Bitbitbitbit_

==TTW==

_We got some gods in the house tonight._

_In the road to hell there was a cold dark cell._

_And a Time Lady stuck inside._

_With a mind full of the future!_

_Terra by name._

_And if you follow that cell,_

_Follow that cell to the owner,_

_Where the drums start banging and humanity’s ending_

_It’s there you’ll find the prime minister of England!_

_Master by name._

_Both of them on the slow road toward hell._

==TTW==

Some days she forgot things.

She forgot how the wind felt in her hair.

She forgot the melodies to Disney songs.

There were stories and make believe that felt more and more like fairy tales, like smoke that she could reach but not quite hold. 

She knew of stories of fantastical worlds. She could remember the worlds of living hurricanes. She remembered worlds where people change into animals. She could see dark witches and dark wizards in her mind’s eye. 

But she forgot little things. She forgot what the address was of her childhood home. She forgot that her bedroom closet had a hidden pocket where she’d hidden precious things. She forgot the time _Criminal Minds_ came on TV.

She could feel herself forgetting what it was like to leave a room without being surrounded by guards. 

She had forgotten what it was like to be so alone. To not even have Darcy at her side. It was breaking some part of her that rejoiced in her solitude.

Terra remembered the Doctor some days.

She remembered Martha on others.

Every day she seemed to remember Jack- or something about Jack-

Remember that right now he walked the Earth.

Remember that he had been looking for _her_.

That he _still waited_.

That he _hadn’t hated her_.

But he was alone.

But the Master never let her forget about her newest creatures.

The Abominations.

The Paradoxes in a Ball.

Humanity’s Finest Hour.

Humanity’s Darkest Hour.

==TTW==

_It’s a sad song._

_Sad song._

_It’s an old tale from way back when-_

==TTW==

Terra could hear when the TARDIS was altered.

She heard the TARDIS screech in her mind.

The Master tortured the TARDIS. Twisted her wires. Broke down her hardware. He forced her to work.

The screams went on for a long time. Like a thousand records hard stopping. Terra often wondered how her ears weren’t constantly bleeding.

The Master could project his thoughts into her mind. Piggy-backing of the TARDIS signal most likely. Terra was made to watch the torture from her cell.

She was fairly certain that’s when this music started.

Terra liked music.

She liked the beat.

==TTW==

_Not everyone gets to be a Lord_

_In these years, times are hard._

_Hard times are coming for the world of men._

_Let’s introduce you to a few of them._

_On the road to hell, there’s a poor girl looking for love._

==TTW==

Her name was Lucy.

Terra was disturbed by how often the name Lucy came up in this show. Lucy Cartwright, Lucy Saxon, that Lucy that was a stripper for Rory’s bachelor party, the Lucy from _Doctor, Widow and the Wardrobe_.

There was a Lucy conspiracy to be had.

Or maybe a theory.

Terra would put some processing power on it later.

The Master wanted her to know it was all going wrong.

That time was moving around Terra.

And she couldn’t do anything.

But work on the Toclafane.

That was her job.

That was her goal.

_That- that- that- that-_

_That- that- that- that-_

_That- that- that- that-_

_That- that- that- that-_

==TTW==

She could feel people close.

She felt people she had never seen before close by.

People from the Haven were around.

Terra hoped they weren’t trying something Gryffindorish.

She would be so mad at those future people.

Or maybe she had already gone mad, and those were delusions she crafted to make this time seem less lonely.

She needn’t worry.

The Master was there.

_He was always there._

==TTW==

_It’s a sad song_

_It’s a tragedy_

_And we’re gonna sing it again..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI EVERYONE! WHO’S READY FOR AN ANGST FIC?! THAT’S RIGHT- ALL OF YOU!  
> Why am I doing this?! Easy.  
> Some people do in fact write that the OC is abducted by the Master- and I don’t think they torture them enough. Come on, he’s the Simm!Master. We’ve seen what he does when left alone with something. Terra would definitely be insane if she was stuck with the Master for 18~ months.  
> So we’re gonna have a 17 chapter fic for Sound of Drums and then Last of the Time Lords.


	2. The Repeated Christmas

_ Things will start...things will end...not even the beats of a butterfly could change them now. _

This was said by one sad girl, sitting on a bench.

Yet miles away, another sad girl heard those words.

As the words floated past her mind- literally in one ear then out the other- she tapped a beat on the walls of her cell.

==TTW==

Everyone at the facility knew someone was in room #251.

Nobody knew  _ who _ was inside.

Everytime someone tried- peaking through the food wall, opening the door, listening at the door- those people never came back to work.

All they knew was that some days someone would come by from the Ministry of Defense to collect something from that room. Lots and lots of something, items that couldn’t possibly have been made by one person, right?

But still- multiple crates were taken away, then returned to Room #251.

One worker- let’s call him Stanley, cause it really doesn’t matter who he is- tried to peak in one crisp winter evening- tried peaking into the room. It was during one of those switch outs.

Normally, he’d be at home for Boxing Day. But given what happened yesterday with that spaceship and the A+ people going to the roofs it was better considered that he came to work for security purposes. So Stanley was at work. Watching the ward with #251. Whoever was in there, they were the only thing in that entire ward.

So much mystery around one little room.

A human was bound to get curious every so often.

Stanley went to take a look- as military men carried out the crates. 

He could hear something from that direction. A woman’s voice.

“Hello?” He called out. “I didn’t know it was a woman. Hello! Miss?”

The voice kept on singing. Stanley walked faster towards her.

Finally he got close enough that the voice came with words.

_ “Why...do we build the wall?” _ A voice sang. Stanley was drawn in by it. The voice was high and haunting, the way the sirens of old had been.  _ “We built the wall to keep us free. That’s why we built the wall- we built the wall to keep us free.” _

Stanley found himself walking. He had to see. He had to see who had been trapped here. He needed to see.  _ Something about it was pulling him along. _

_ “First comes the stocking for Little Nell. Oh dear Master fill it well! Give her a real live dolly that mostly cries. One that can open and shut his eyes. Hohoho, who wouldn’t go. Hohoho, who wouldn’t go. Up on the housetop, click-click-click. Down from the roof with good, mind-controlled humans. _ Oh no, the beat was all wrong...” __

He was standing in front of a door. The patient room for #251 was up the hall and to the left. The door was- for lack of better words- the common room. If more people were here, you could expect to see them playing board games or cards or watching television there. Or whatever it was that people did in mental hospital common rooms. 

Still.

The only patient here was singing.

Stanley had to see.

He couldn’t explain why exactly he had this compulsion. Only that he couldn’t shake it. He had to see who was singing. He’d made it this far after all.

Stanley opened the door- ignoring a quiet voice in the back of his mind saying it should be locked. He stepped inside.

It was  _ terrible _ .

Like something Saruman would have beneath the dirt, for crafting orcs.

The walls were pitch black. From the paint of the walls, or the smoke in the air. Fire pits were scattered around, metal being poured into them.

Sitting in the middle of the room, at a desk was a young woman. Practically a girl. Dressed up in gray prison clothes, thick brown gloves on her hands as she worked, heavy goggles on her face that did nothing to stop her bright orange hair from getting into the contraptions.

_ “Up on the housetop, click-click-click. Look at the stocking of little Bill. Oh just what a glorious thrill! Here is a hammer and lots of tacks. Nail them in your eyes and in your sister’s back. Hohoho, who wouldn’t go. Hohoh, who wouldn’t go. Up on the housetop, click-click-click. Down from the roof fall thunk-thunk-thunk.”  _ The girl was the one singing. The girl was the patient.

Stanley was so confused at why she was here.

What could this girl have done to warrant this level of solitude?

_ “Up goes the stocking of little me-.”  _ The girl sang. 

“Hello?” Stanley called out.

She stopped. 

Stanley had the feeling of someone who had just realized they were in a horror movie.

She turned towards him. She took off her goggles to better look his way.

“I’m sorry.” The girl’s eyes were full of another kind of mourning.

Stanley tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

“What are you doing to Mummy?” A high pitched, sickeningly sweet voice asked from behind him.

Stanley turned around-

==TTW==

Terra watched the man flop to the ground.

Another person fell by her  _ ‘children’ _ .

Terra sighed. Tears wanted to fall from her eyes. She lost them ages ago.

She had six billion Toclafane to make by Election Day 2007.

She had much work to do- 

Much work-

Much work-

_ Muchwork-muchwork-muchwork-muchwork- _

“Mummy?”

“Mummy’s working.” Terra replied tiredly. “Go back to the others.”

“Yes Mummy.” The orb popped away. Their job was completed.

Terra sighed, running her hand in her hair. She held tightly to her locks of hair, lightly tugging on the strands. She had to remind herself that she was there, that she existed. Sometimes when she worked she forgot.

_ I like to watch the wheel. Helps me forget. _

_ Forget what? _

_ I guess it worked. _

“ _ I’ve been thinking bout this year a lot. _ ” Terra sang, getting back to work on another Toclafane head. “ _ Whether I’ve been a good girl or not-” _

Overhead, speakers made a loud crackling noise.

Terra yelped. She jumped out from her seat, hiding behind it.

_ “Terra.” _

The Time Lady peeked her head up. “Sorry  _ senor. _ No hablo Inglés-”

_ “I heard you had a guest.” _ Came the voice on the other end.

Terra clenched her hands on the chair.

_ “What happened to him, Terra?” _

Terra let out a shaking, shuddering breath. “He...”

_ “Who hurt him?” _

“A Toclafane.”

_ “How could they have done that?” _

“They- they came and hit him.” Terra explained. She let out another breath.

_ “And I’ll say again. How could they have done that?” _ The Master asked. _ “They haven’t been activated yet. We wouldn’t want to accidentally set off a paradox this far from D-Day, now would we?” _

“A Toclafane killed him.” Terra insisted. She knew what the Master was trying to play. She hadn’t been seeing things. A Toclafane had come to kill him. They could make small killings like this, from people who would’ve vanished anyway without leaving a bloodline. Or perhaps they already had? Either way, they could kill. They just had to be careful about it.

_ “If you say.” _ The Master replied, not sounding convinced. Terra wanted to shoot him.  _ “Did you see the news?” _

“You took away my TV.” Terra reminded him.

_ “So I did.” _ A digital projection appeared overhead.

Terra saw millions of confused people climbing off the rooftops. She saw the ship flying overhead. Her hand clenched on the chair again. 

_ “What a lovely ship. Do you know who’s on it right now? Let’s take a look.” _

The image shifted. It closed in on the ship. She saw him. The Doctor sword fighting one of the aliens. Her past self, standing back Rose Tyler.

Terra said nothing.

Inside Terra wanted to scream.

She wanted to reach out to the Doctor- that brand new Doctor- her old face that she remembered and missed so much-

If she did...they would be the next shot down by the Toclafane. The Paradox Murders would have no qualms murdering the past version of the bitch that made them.

Terra pulled herself away from the screen. She went back to her workbench.

The Master’s smug grin could be heard over the speakers. Terra pushed it out of her head.

Terra wasn’t sure if she hated Christmas or not anymore...

_ “Santa promise, you won’t get mad. Sometimes it feels so good to be bad...” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I being cruel for no reason? Yes. Will I stop? No. Can I be stopped? Maybe.


	3. Poor Soul, Poor Thing, Made With Super Special Density

There was a song blasting in her head. 

No, not a song- Terra may be losing bits and pieces of thing, but she remembered what music in her head felt like. It was repetitive, and loud. She could usually tell what the song was, or at least where she’d heard it before. 

This was not a song.

This was not even a lyric.

It was an incomplete  _ beat _ .

Terra couldn’t get along with an incomplete beat. Especially not when she knew what was behind that beat, what was hidden between those drum beats.

_ Vote Saxon _

_ Believe In Me _

_ Don’t pay attention to the Time Lords hidden in plain sight _

She ignored it.

She ignored the pounding in her ears that was trying to command her. The Master had not yet perfected Archangel. The rhythm was there, but shaking. It was unequal. The song was incomplete. 

Terra hated incomplete songs.

They were so annoying when they got stuck in your head.

Terra tried explaining this to the Toclafane. They didn’t understand it. Too robotic, too ‘evolved’ to understand the basics of these emotions.

They weren’t meant to understand the Archangel Network.

Only to work inside it. To move within it, to spread that message over and over until it covered the entire planet Earth during the paradox year.

Toclafane were such poor conversationalists. Terra didn’t mind. Her new self was quite the talker, it seemed. She would just go on and on, talking about any such thing that crossed her mind. 

Her rambling was cut off by an alert. Not a loud alert, just a tiny ping. Terra was annoyed by the interruption. Then it occurred to her that  _ she was being interrupted. _ Terra hadn’t been interrupted for a while.

==TTW==

She had...visitors? She never had visitors before. Yeah, there was the oddball who would wander in. They never stayed long, especially not for a conversation. She hadn’t heard from another being in a month. These visitors had to leave alive and well. That was a new experience. Pity, as these guests were ones that Terra would have no trouble killing. 

Terra had continued her work until 10 o’clock. Time may be broken, but it was still moving forward. Wait no it wasn’t broken yet...it was nearly broken. Until the paradox began, she had to act like time mattered.

When it was time to leave, Terra halted her work. Terra was guided by lights and noises towards the waiting room of the building. She wasn’t allowed near people anymore. The waiting room had six square tables in it. Terra took a seat at the third table- the one with cups of water on it. Terra wanted Kool-aid. A pitiful party this was...

Terra began to hum a song. She wanted to make it a bit more lively. If she couldn’t have a fun party, she’d make it a fun party. 

The doors at the end of the hall opened. Terra sat back in her seat, tapping her fingers on her leg as two people walked in. The Master was walking in with Lucy Cole on his arm. Lucy was a part of his life already? Terra has thought that would take a few more months.

Given that the room was empty save for the three of them, Terra could hear every word he was whispering to Lucy. 

“-all alone and abandoned. Norah’s practically family now- I couldn’t imagine leaving her behind.”

“You’re so thoughtful, Harry.”

Nora? Her fake name was  _ Nora _ ? Was that with or without an H? The question was maddening.

“She’s just so addled. She can’t be around people anymore. This whole place is just for her safety. I make sure to visit whenever I can.”

“Oh poor thing.” Lucy put her hand on her heart.

Terra wanted to roll her eyes. It helped that a new song was beginning to play in her head. This one was making her more willing to go along with this farce.

“Norah Rettere, meet Lucy Cole.” The Master introduced them.

Lucy gave Terra a very kind smile. Terra could see her blue eyes, sparkling with a life not yet dulled. Whatever the Master would do to Lucy yet, it hadn’t been completed.

Or worse...Terra had been apart from people so long that she couldn’t tell. The little human ticks had faded, replaced in her brain with knowledge about Toclafane.

“Hello Norah.” Lucy held out her hand. Terra eyed it, then eyed the Master. “You seem like a lovely young lady. This all must be so lonely for you...without Harry coming round.”

The Master just smiled on, taunting Terra with his faux innocence.

Two could play at that game.

Terra reaches to take Lucy’s hand. “Coal black light.”

Lucy blinked. Her kind smile shook in confusion. Harry took the seat accord from Terra, so Lucy took the one beside him. “I’m sorry?”

“Your name. It means  _ coal black light _ .” Terra replied. “His name means  _ swordsman with a powerful army. _ ”

“Oh...okay then.” Lucy gave Harry a smile. She was starting to understand what Harry had meant. “You didn’t tell me she was American.”

_ If one more person references that I will SCREAM! _

Terra narrowed her eyes.

The Master just grinned. “I did say a distant branch of the family.”

“Family?” Terra prompted.

“Yes.” The Master leaned forward in his seat. “We’re family, Norah. Do you remember that?”

Terra leaned over, folding her arms over the table. Her amber eyes held a deep calculation, the Master could see it ticking away. “Does my name have a silent H?”

He kept grinning.

It didn’t matter- Terra had her answer regardless.

“Norah Rettere: savior of  _ honor _ .” Terra recalled. She wanted to make a joke about restoring her honor for the fate of the Fire Nation, for everything had been the same on Earth until it attacked.

Instead she started tapping a simple beat with her thumbs. The Master narrowed his own eyes at her. Terra smiled innocently- mocking his earlier grin.

“Wow. You sure know a lot of names.” Lucy commented, trying to fill the silence.

Terra didn’t look from the Master. “We all do odd things to fill the time.” She gave Lucy a quick meaningful glance before locking eyes again with the Master.

The Master copied her pose, folding his arms into the table. “Doesn’t time just  _ fly _ ? Do you feel it flying, Norah?”

“Now, Harry, you know better.” Terra replied. “Time hasn’t flown for a long time. Not since you started breaking it.”

The Master just laughed. He looked to Lucy, nodding his head towards Terra as if to say  _ ‘see what I mean?’ _ Lucy nodded her head in sympathy.

Okay she was definitely under mind control.

_ “There was a barber and his wife, and he was beautiful.”  _ Terra started to sing, leaning back in her chair. The Master eyed her from the corner of his eye, confusion plain across his face. “ _ A proper artist with a knife. But they transported him for life.” _

“Is she...singing?”

“Does this sometimes.” The Master excused. “Can’t get her out of it unless...do you want to know where Lucy and I have just been? A Time Lord and his human companion, you know what that’s like.”

Lucy’s expression darkened, falling flat as if on command.

_ “He has this wife, you see. Pretty little thing. Silly little nit.” _ Terra continued. She let her thumbs- still clasped together in a fist- tap away that four drum beat. “ _ Had her chance for the moon on the string. Poor thing, poor thing.” _

“I showed her the stars. The end of the world. The really, real end of it.” The Master explained in delight. “A supply run for yourself. You needed more, didn’t you?”

_ “There was this judge, you see. Wanted her like mad. Every day he’d send a flower but did she come down from her tower?”  _ Terra ignored just story. She pushed it out of her mind. Replaced his drum beat with her own melodies.  _ “Sit up there and sulked by the hour, pool fool.” _

“She saw things, didn’t you sweetheart?” The Master prompted, meeting Terra in the vacant eye. “Tell Norah what you saw.”

_ “Ah but there was worse yet to come. Poor thing.” _ Terra replied.

“Dying. Everything dying.” Lucy began, her voice full of dread. 

_ “Well the Beetle calls on her all polite. Poor thing, poor thing.”  _ Terra tapped out a beat of four after each line.  _ “The judge is acting all contrite. He blames himself for her awful plight. She must come straight to his house tonight. Poor thing, poor thing. _ ” She tapped the rhythm again.

The Master sneered. “You’re not letting Lucy speak, Norah.” He warned.

Terra met his stare with a robotic tilt of her head.  _ “Of course when she goes there, poor thing, poor thing!” _ She smacked her fists against the table to the beat.  _ “They’re having this ball all in masks, there’s no one she knows there, poor dear, poor thing!” _

The Master stood up, slamming his own fists on the table. Terra kept her expression flat as she watched him. He was doing a decent job holding back his rage, covering it with a mask of mad joy. “Listen to her story!”

_ “She wanders, tormented and drinks, poor thing! The judge has repented, she thinks, poor thing!” _ Terra’s voice was sticking to a low tone, the song staying somber as she sang.  _ “Oh where is Judge Turpin, she asks? He was there alright, only not so contrite!” _

“Go ahead! Tell her!” The Master ordered.

_ “She wasn’t no match for such craft, you see-” _

“The whole of creation was falling apart-” Lucy continued, like someone had pressed play on a television.

_ “And everyone thought it’s soo droll.” _

“-and I thought, there’s no point. No point to anything. Not ever.”

_ “They figured she had to be drunk, you see.” _

“Haven’t you been listening?!” The Master snapped. “Don’t you hear her? She’s broken. Ruined.”

Terra wanted to slam her fists into his face. She wanted to wring out his pencil neck. She wanted to throw him against a wall. She wanted him to hurt- to bleed.

But the Doctor wasn’t here to save her. Terra knew when he would return, and she just had to stall.

So she kept herself contained.

“ _ So all of them stood there and laughed, you see.” _ Terra sang.  _ “Poor soul! Poor thing!” _ Terra finished.

“Go back to your room!” The Master ordered with a roar.

Terra stood up from her seat. She stopped at the backdoor, turning back in a way that had her hair flaring around. “Nine did that much better!” Terra shouted before slamming the door shut after her.

She didn’t even care if the Master stayed there for much longer. She hated it- she had a greater desire to be in her torture chamber with the Toclafane.

_ Terra was a poor soul indeed. _

==TTW==

The camera light was on again.

Terra was ignoring it. She was tightening a screw on the Toclafane head. He wanted her to work, so she’d work. Sorry can’t make any more house calls. I am behind schedule. 

It ignored her request. Hadn’t it heard her? Was she not speaking clearly-

Oh she hadn’t been speaking.

What a nasty habit Terra had gained.

The cameras and speakers grumbled and garbled, whirring to life. Terra wished just once they would play music. And good music or else it didn’t count.

_ “Hello Terra.” _

“There’s no Terra around here, Mister Master Sir. My name is Norah.” Terra replied. “With an H, I know you’re curious.”

_ “You didn’t behave very well on my visit.” _

“You’d just told me someone else got a joyride on the TARDIS. Can’t a Time Lady admit to feeling jealous?” Terra replied.

_ “You’re admitting to being jealous of _ her? _ All that gnat saw was the end of the world.” _

_ “Rubber bands, rubber balls. Made with super special density.”  _ Terra turned the screwdriver to the beat.  _ “Rubber bands, rubber balls, they can bounce with such intensity.” _

_ “Don’t ignore me!” _

_ “This is the room where we test the stretching, this is the room where we test the bounce!”  _ Terra sang louder. She heard the Master growl in irritation. “ _ Here we add the long-chain hydrocarbons, the names of which I cannot pronounce.” _

_ “What, what did you want to hear? More about Lucy Cole? I could do that for you!” _

_ “This is the room where we test compression, this is the room where we test recoil-” _

_ “She’s nothing. Just a puny little Earth girl. Don’t tell me you’re jealous about  _ her. _ ” _

_ “This is a break room for all these dancers and here's a little fridge so the curry won't spoil.” _

The Master only laughed. 

Terra ignored him, singing the chorus again.

_ “What, did you want another go? All those Toclafane would  _ love _ to see their Lord and Master once again.” _

_ “Basically what we make here is rubber, we’re not trying to diversify. We don’t make knickknacks, we don’t make tchotchkes-” _

_ “You’re not jealous because of her. You’re jealous because she wasn’t you. Because  _ she  _ gets to leave Earth and you _ don’t.”

_ “Or really anything that’s gonna catch your eye. We don't make pianos, we don't make cream sodas-” _

_ “He’s still not come for you, has he? And he won’t. Not ever, not after what you did.” _

Terra paused.  _ “-I don’t make the zippers for your parachute pants.” _ The Master glared. “ _ I don’t make ice cube trays or ceiling fans-” _

_ “He’ll hate you for what you’ve done to his favorite species. Why, I think his hearts might just break,” _

_ “I make rubber bands. When they snap, I’ll take all of that time with me. Rubber bands- Toclafane- they’re all the fucking same to me.”  _ She slammed the screwdriver down on the table.

Sparks flew from around the room. The speaker exploded outwards, mechanical parts fell down like limp spaghetti noodles. More and more sparks came from all around the room. They burst out like the prettiest fireworks you’d ever seen in your life.

Terra ignored the sight of the Toclafane melting on her table. She ignored the chaotic sputterings of the destroyed speaker. She pushed out the troubling thoughts ticking away in her head like a meddlesome migraine.

She ignored the tiny part of her that wondered...

_ What if he’s right? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No use denying it folks- I love torturing my characters. This in no way is an apology.


	4. Blood & Tears

She had been in a cave, last time.

She remembered that with a kind of clarity that scared her. It constantly smelled of burning metal and men sweat. Something distinctly not fun. She had been wearing something white- it shifted to gray. Her socks had holes in them.

Few things were so clear now.

But she remembered that cave.

Remembered like it was happening before her eyes.

Remembered with something visceral.

It dragged her back to that space every time.

==TTW==

She hated wearing skirts.

Really, really hated them.

She remembered the last time she ever wore one without feeling needles on her skin.

Always back to that damn cave.

Skirts were funny on a sunny day.

Less fun when the wrong move of your body showed the terrorists behind the cameras your ass.

==TTW==

Her name had been Stark.

They told her to repair him first.

She’d been 96.

That still wasn’t her first time cutting into a human.

It was her first time doing it to rip out their heart.

She had stuck in a car battery. They hadn’t let her use the bombs yet. She knew what would fix him. She’d done all the math for weeks. They just wouldn’t give her any parts.

He woke up screaming.

She slept doing the same.

She had just wanted to help him. He was dying. There had been so much metal in him, not even she could get them out.

He still woke up with that faulty heart.

She had pants to change into.

The terrorists behind the cameras were always watching.

Never giving her respite.

Never giving her space.

She couldn’t take off the skirt without showing off her ass.

She couldn’t just put the pants on too because it was hotter than balls.

She couldn’t take off the skirt to put on the pants because it was a dress.

She hated dresses.

She hated being watched from cameras.

Sometimes it felt like all she could do was hate.

==TTW==

_ Rape was kinda like falling. _

_ It’s not the act that kills you. _

_ It’s where you and the unmoving object meet. _

_ It’s when you’ve lost your ability to control when it stops. _

_ But when you meet it...then you stand back up...you have to keep standing up day after day after day. _

_ It’s worse than falling. _

_ Because at least if you fall from high enough, you never stand again. _

_ That doesn’t change the fact that you have to stand up again. _

==TTW==

How could she be in the most secure building on planet Earth, hidden away in the deepest part of it, yet she felt so unsafe?

Why did she scream at every unknown sound?

Why did she jump when the door opened?

No one knew she was here.

Trapped behind layers upon layers of concrete.

Even if she somehow found a way out, she couldn’t leave without knowing her companion would be safe. For the Master could take control of Torchwood at any time. Until she could escape with their lives intact, what was the point?

He would find her anyway. Send out her metal children to collect her. Anyone associated with her. They’d go down like  _ pop-pop-pop-pop _ .

She tugged and tugged and tugged at sleeves until they stopped adding them to her clothes.

She had pulled at her hair until strands popped off in her hand.

She tried to sing her stress away.

It didn’t work.

Because she was still locked in.

She was still locked up tight.

_ She wanted to go Home _

==TTW==

She didn’t know why this face wanted to wear a skirt.

She didn’t know why the Master wanted her working on the Toclefane.

She didn’t know why she didn’t bring a bomb into that cave from the start.

She didn’t like not knowing things.

She lived by Rule 4: Knowing Everything.

She did know why she was scared to sleep under a camera.

She did know that she’d tricked out the skirt of the dress to be a skort.

She did know that cutting into humans would never be fun

_ (Even if she was good at it) _

She did know that she took out the men behind the cameras.

She did know it helped her sleep at night to remember that

==TTW==

Her sister would understand- of course she would.

The next time they spoke, she would talk about this with her. She had to. Darcy was the only one who would understand this pain.

Darcy worked out her pain with knives.

Terra worked out her pain with stories.

But she didn’t have her remote.

Or her laptop.

Or even her Bag with books.

So she had to make do with what she had.

==TTW==

She told a hundred or so Toclefane about the time she dropped a man into a power core.

Told a hundred more about a world where she’d shot golden beams of what felt like energy but looked like plasma from her hands.

The next hundred heard a story of when Terra first started teaching Darcy of their system of murdering people in ways that wouldn’t get caught by the police. 

The next two hundred were told stories of death and blood and pain and agony and screaming endlessly into the night. Of beating her hands bloody against burning metal. Scratching at dirt until it became part of her.

She was allowed to sleep after that. 

==TTW==

She remembered that cave.

She remembered building a poisonous heart. It would kill the man wearing it soon. The poison of it would seep into his blood. With each false beat of it, with each strained use of its power, that poison spread  _ faster _ .

She remembered sleepless nights trying to find ways to fix it. To repair a heart meant to kill.

_ (She’d lived her whole life with one _

_ She understood the pain _

_ She understood anyone else would crumble under that _

_ But Starks were made of iron _

_ She was made of broken stars) _

She killed everyone in that camp.

He had only wanted out.

She didn’t have that capacity for mercy.

_ (She wished she could learn _

_ Being nice to madmen had never been her forte) _

==TTW==

Another thing to hate about the Master was that he  _ gloated _ .

Not the fun kind of gloating, with mocking sentences and  _ na-nana-na-boo-boo  _ and  _ i-win-you-lose-now-you-got-a-big-bruise. _ He bragged like a sleep deprived college student working on a failed project for the thirtieth time.

He always wanted a reaction out of her.

Terra did not give him one.

She never gave one to the terrorists behind the camera. 

Not when they threw her to the ground.

Not when they threatened to burn out her tongue.

Not when they buried five bullets in her chest.

She did not dignify him with her reactions.

She had raised Darcy Elizabeth Anderson. She knew how not to goad a psychopath. Then again, that psychopath had been her sister so goading each other was just the norm.

He wanted her to break.

Starks were made of iron.

Terra was made of broken stars.

Nebulas did not sway on the whims of anyone but themselves.

They did not obey any masters.

_ “Don’t you want him to save you?” _

_ Trapped beneath the ground, locked away where I won’t be found _

_ “Don’t you miss your friends?” _

_ No one knows I’m here, but the day draws near _

_ “They would hate you.” _

_ I will leave this place, ending all the fears I’ve faced _

_ “They would hate what you’ve done. To these people. To this planet.” _

_ If I could go free, would they come recapture me? _

_ “They’d hated what you’ve done to yourself. But then again, you’ve always been like this haven’t you?” _

_ And I won’t forgive the pain or forget the years _

_ “You’ve always been like me. Bet the Doctor doesn’t like that.” _

_ Full of blood and tears _


	5. Return of the Ghosts

_ I woke up in despair _

_ I look ahead, beware _

_ To find three little ghosts in front of me, I’m scared _

Terra liked the dark.

The one thing you’d think she’d develop an aversion- it was her favorite. You’d think she’d fear it. All that time spent in the dark...being trapped in that without light for decades.

You’d think she’d be fearful of the dark. She knew normal people would’ve been. They could never understand a true danger. They couldn’t fathom the dark had something inside of it. It was just so wild, beyond their scope of being. There was something alive in it- had to be- in the dark. All the creatures that lived there.

Terra knew them.

Been with them.

Broke bread with them.

Befriended so many night walkers.

Killed so many more.

Terra knew the danger of the dark.

She just didn’t care.

Terra had fought worse.

The dark was just so lovely...when it was there it was all encompassing. A deep seeping coldness that infected the bones. It left your spine in a constant state of chill. 

She remembered the Void.

It wasn’t a thing you forgot.

This dark was pale to it. A dark figure, casting a mighty shadow it could never hope to truly be.

Terra missed the Void- in late nights, lonely nights. She could hear it, if she strained her mind to it.

This darkness existed to mock the Void. 

It was insulting.

It was blasphemy against the true darkness.

It made rage ignite inside her. A seething monster with gnarled teeth, a demonic shriek in her throat. 

She could hear it calling out.

Every day, just a ten past the hour.

_ The Void missed her so much. _

_ Don’t be afraid...I’m the one who’ll help you find the way...so much to say...but don’t be here to stay... _

==TTW==

_ I look around to see if anyone else can see _

_ But no one hears my pleas _

_ Or cares to hear me scream _

The facility she was in wasn’t much bigger than it looked. For all the amazingness that was Time Lord science, the Master hadn’t had the time to craft his lockbox before throwing Terra inside it. Terra had never even seen the outside- the TARDIS had just been forced to land there and she had been thrown into it.

How long was it, after Utopia was it that Terra woke up in this place? Had it been a few days, or less? More? Terra herself barely knew. It can’t have been long, she would’ve noticed. She also would’ve noticed if he’d done anything to gain all this power before dropping her off.

Or maybe...maybe her own mind was turning on her already. Rewriting her memories to suit a better narrative.

Terra was probably overthinking it. There was nothing left to do in this place but think things to death.

Her bedroom wasn’t much of a bedroom. It was the textbook definition of a cell. Small square room, small twin sized bed, no hidden corner for the toilet. Terra would’ve appreciated that. Even a curtain would’ve done. Anything so she could have a semblance of privacy. She only got that for showers.

She hated it.  _ (Not the showers, the Master was ‘generous’ enough to give tiny little bottles of shampoo/conditioner)  _ She hated not having her own space. She hated feeling so alone...she hated having nothing. All those times when it was her with the Doctor, she could have her phone to text her sister.

Terra wanted to reach out. She wanted that so badly.

If it was allowed, she’d wake up in that tiny little bed in that tiny little room to cry herself right back in.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised to see a blurry figure standing at the foot of her bed.

Terra paused a minute at the sight. The shape was blurry, faded from her sight. She couldn’t see it properly. She just had...she had to focus-

_ The more you want it, the stronger it gets. _

Terra felt cold. She knew this would happen again, she knew she knew she knew. Of course it would all happen again. She’d gone to when the Doctor had regenerated. Why wouldn’t it all happen again?

Another chance for her to fail Rose Tyler.

And it brought along a ghost to keep her company.

_ I doubt that people care _

_ Alone and so aware _

_ And now by myself  _

==TTW==

_ I’m left with all this pain to bear _

_ With shivers going down my spine and ghosts long gone dead _

_ But then this is what they said _

Terra went back to work. She tried working at the Toclafane again. This had become easy. It hurt, the first few weeks. She was getting over it. They weren’t even human anymore. They were long since dead.

That’s what she told herself anyway.

She tuned out her own thoughts. She had more important things to focus on. There was the routine of working on the Toclafane. Those were important right now. The sooner she finished enough of these, the sooner she could get back to bed. Being in her bed was a good thing. She should always work towards that.

Being in her bed made it easier to tune out the world. The rhythm, the ghosts, the occasional chatty Toclafane- which she did  _ not _ ask for. She could ignore that the Master already had his ‘wife’ that was clearly already under mind control. Terra was getting good at ignoring things. 

That just meant, of course, that when something wanted to get her attention it had to really try.

Terra had been sitting at her desk, minding her own damn business. There was a loose bolt on the head. She couldn’t let anyone find out about these things, not before Martha could trick one away.

There was a static buzzing behind her. Terra was ignoring it- really she was. But it kept showing up at that spot, just for a minute after ten minutes past. She hadn’t wanted it. She ignored it.

But then she could smell it. A strong smell to punch her in the face over the smell of burnt metal and grease. 

Blood.

Darcy had never quite figured out a way to get rid of that smell. She liked painting her nails with a concoction of nail polish made by blood. She thought it looked cool. It did, but Terra would never tell her that. They were still trying to work that out from the nail polish.

“...which is when all of them decided to go back in the fucking place. Look. I get it. Technically someone was still alive. But also technically, it was her fault. That they were there, and she killed like two of the party. Leave her to the  _ Descent _ monsters. Right, Purple? We agree that the  _ puta _ had to stay below ground. The sequel was un-”

It occurred to Terra that she’d fucked up.

She’d talked to it.

She was supposed to be, you know,  _ not  _ doing that. She should be ignoring them. She knew they weren’t real ghosts. The dangers of it weren’t lost on her. The Cybermen were a problem that needed to be handled.

Just...she just...

Terra missed her sister. She missed that murdering idiot. She hadn’t seen her at all since changing face, and even longer before that. Terra hated that it’d been so long...she wasn’t used to it taking that long to see Darcy.

It was reasonable to miss the family member that you actually liked.

Darcy wouldn’t even try to help, come to think of it. She’d goad Terra into talking to the Cyberman. To say something stupid, trying to drag it back over so Darcy could have a turn smashing it to bits.

She didn’t like that plan. 

_ (She loved that plan) _

“We both know I’m-” Terra clamped her mouth shut.

She’d talked to it again.

She glared over her shoulder. The ghostly figure faded before she eyes. Almost as if- like Darcy- it grumbled under Terra’s fierce glare. That wasn’t possible obviously. Cybermen felt no fear.

Either way, it was gone.

Which left Terra all alone.

Again.

_ Don’t be afraid _

_ We’re the ones who’ll help you find the way _

_ So much to say _

_ But don’t be here to stay _

==TTW==

_ Help me _

_ Someone please come and help me _

_ Need somebody to tell me- please please- _

_ What the hell is going on _

Her brain was loud again.

Terra could barely push it back. Just...all the loudness from everything. It was like everything had the volume dial turned up to max. She could hear the whirring gears of Toclafane, hear them testing out their bits and bobs as they adjusted to their new lives. She could hear her heartbeats, feel them through her chest. The air vent pushing in cold air. A dripping pipe from her shower.

She heard sounds that weren’t even there. Screams, from any man, woman, or child. She could hear pleas for mercy. Was someone singing the fucking opera?! It wasn’t even good...

Her own skin was complaining against her. Everything was grating on her. The dumb material of the prison scrubs she had for clothes...the chair she was sitting in to work...the ground beneath her feet. It was wrong. Something about it was so wrong...so grating...so...so...so... _ so- _

Terra wanted to scream. She wanted to scream at whatever it was to shut the fuck up. Or to punch the table, cause she hated how that thing was too. The Master hadn’t liked when she broke that speaker before. She’d been warned not to do it again...Terra wondered what he could even do to make her life worse if she tried.

Covering up her ears didn’t do anything. Terra couldn’t tell if it made the sounds worse- or if it made everything else worse. 

Then came ten past.

Oh... _ everything _ got worse.

For a tiny moment...the Void was open. Nothing but unending deafening shrieking. Terra wanted it to go away. She didn’t want to hear it anymore- or to feel it in her space.

There was just so much of it...Terra hated it.

She yelled at the ghostly figure that came back. 

**_“GO AWAY!”_ ** She screamed. “ **_LEAVE ME ALONE! YOU FUCKING BITCH- GO BACK GO BACK GO THE FUCK BACK!”_ **

It stayed.

Terra yelled again. She raised her stupid chair, throwing it at the ghost. The ghost did nothing. It just took the abuse. That only made Terra angrier.

She ignored the crackle of the new speaker. Well not ignore it, she could hear it. It just got lost in all the other noise.

_ Crazy. I might be going crazy _

_ Need someone here to tell me _

_ Please, please. _

_ How do we get along? _

==TTW==

Apparently the Master had tried to call her. She’d responded by screaming at the ghost. All in all, quite rude and ginger of her.

That had been weeks ago. Terra was spending a lot more time locked away in her room. Whenever she was let out for work, she always had a guide. A pair of security guards that had to leave alive. Terra wasn’t unconvinced that these were the stereotypical henchmen for supervillains.

They would chain her down to a seat that had been bolted down to the ground. They handed her parts as instructed. Terra continued her work. 

The Void kept being open. For longer and longer stretches of time, more often. More of her day was lost to the pain of having a head too stuffed by  _ things _ . Ghosts kept coming by- one that kept trying to wear Darcy’s face. 

Terra spent a lot more time stopping the work just to scream. Her eyes burned with tears, soaking her cheeks as she suffered.

_ (She wanted to go back _

_ She wanted to go back into the Void _

_ She missed it _

_ It missed her _

_ And it wouldn’t stop reaching out. _

_ It was sometimes too much work to fight reaching back) _

==TTW==

The Master apparently has a feeling this would be Doomsday.

Terra hadn’t had a chance to look at a calendar when all of that happened. 

She had been restrained on her bed. She couldn’t move off it. She was stuck. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.

_ Terra wanted to scream. _

_ Cause she could feel it.  _

_ Feel the Void reaching out to her. _

_ It missed her. _

_ Everyone missed her. _

_ Don’t be afraid _

_ We’re the ones who’ll help you find the way _

_ “So much to say!”  _ Terra sang, fighting against the restraints holding her down.  _ “But I’m not here to stay!” _

Outside, the Cyberman were being dragged back into the Void. Every single one that managed to make it through onto this Earth was thrown back. Terra laughed through all of it.

The only thing that stopped her was when her second self fell into the Void. That made her fall into a dead faint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terra is one cat away from going complete bog-witch.


	6. You Get By, Somehow

_ “I like spending birthdays with you. You make me do the fun stuff. Not that tonight wasn’t fun, Buttface.” My sister’s expression broke out into an unwilling smile. “But next year, I’m gonna have a lie-in ‘kay? Watch a movie, eat popcorn?” _

==TTW==

_ So Terra was able to celebrate her 181st birthday in a building she’d always wanted to create, watching a musical she could only adore, and sat in a room full of people Terra had given her life to save. _

_ And she knew her next would not be as sweet. _

==TTW==

Keeping track of days was hard. Terra had mostly gotten her head back on straight, from what happened in May. The Void had snapped shut and so had it’s effects. The process back to sanity was long, though it was easier.

All she had to do was not cause a scene. That was it. Her life was much less shitty than it had been those first few months. Terra hadn’t been able to take those months. Her brain still hurt from thinking back over it too much.

Some of it was still fuzzy. 

But she could feel it. Ticking down like the best kind of Times Square ball, hosted by Ryan Seacrest like everything was. 

_ Her birthday.  _

Terra wanted to laugh. It just seemed funny to her. That dark kind of funny you find yourself laughing with, like at a thought so dark you have to laugh at how outlandish it is. Maybe you think that Hannibal’s most infamous recipe wouldn’t be so bad, you were so hungry. Or maybe you come up with a whole 12-step plan in killing your sister without getting arrested. What a marvelous sense of humor.

Haha. Yes. A... _ joke _ . Funny.

What made her laugh, was where she had expected to be right now. She had thought she was be 11 months into the Year That Never Was. She would be with Martha trying to save the world. It would be like a real life Epcot mission! Only with like  _ maybe  _ less singing. And less Doofenshmirtz.

How foolish Terra had been, making an assumption like that. She had felt so sure of it. As soon as the Doctor had said where they were going, flashes of her next birthday had come to her. Surrounded by the people of probably America or Greenland, Terra eating protein bars instead of cookies. Martha by her side with a tiny little match. A sad birthday, but Terra’s has worse. This birthday was fixing to top all of those bad birthdays.

The one thing that would make it worse was if  _ he  _ found out. 

Terra made a point to not show her joy. She has practice in not letting people see her birthday excitement. A lot of places, the timelines didn’t match up with her own internal calendar. Sometimes Terra celebrated her birthday a full three months before her friends even knew it was passing by. A lot of her birthdays were spent alone...

Hiding the joy was easier than her first month. The steady routine of her treatment here was making itself known in her features. Her skin was pale from ten months without direct sunlight. Her hair was still brightly ginger, though none of the beautiful curls and waves from when it first appeared. She usually kept it tied back in two buns behind her head.

The hardest part was not singing any birthday songs. Terra kept feeling them climbing up from her throat. It felt bad, it felt so bad. She choked them back down.

Terra tapped the work table in that beat. It was the only thing keeping her focused on her goal. 

Four taps.

Four beats.

_ Four times in a row, it must be spoken, unbroken. _

The drums kept reminding her of who must not know.

If he knew she could be happy...find one piece of joy...he would take it away. Terra had practice in that too. 

Darcy never  _ did  _ give back that stuffed mama dog toy. It had a bunch of little puppies inside- Terra had loved it. Her sister wanted to see how accurate it was. 

_ (No cesarean procedures have ever been carried out by Darcy Anderson on canines or humans) _

==TTW==

She had done so  _ good _ .

She had kept herself  _ quiet _ . For  _ months. _

Yet day of...the day she should keep her guard most up...he came. He came swaggering in, like he was already king of the world. From where he was, had there been anything to give him doubt?

She should’ve known it wouldn’t work. She had been singing  _ ‘Can’t Stop What’s Coming’  _ all morning. 

Before long she was asked via the speakers to come to the visitor’s center. Terra took a deep breath just before obeying the order. She walked over to the room, sat at the same table as last time.

The Master was already there waiting. Terra slid into her seat, staring over the Master’s shoulder at nothing. He hadn’t brought Lucy again. Terra was saddened by that. She wanted to know how the future wife of the Prime Minister was doing. Secretary of Defense, or whatever he was now.

_ She started the Haven in the honor of women like her. _

The Master was beaming, giddy on some high that Terra fought to fear. Fear, but not react. Feel, but don’t show.

_ So I get low _

_ Destiny is fading much too fast _

_ Destiny is fading much too fast _

_ But I won’t give it away _

Terra let out a soft breath. “Howdy, Master. What brings you to my humble abode?” She asked. She sounded happy, but flat. There was a hollowness to her words. “Sorry I’m not in my Sunday best. You were a surprise!”

The Master just smiled. “Yes, a surprise. I had something I wanted to show you.”

“Last time, you brought a lady friend.” Terra noted- not at all excited for this surprise.

His smile became wider, sending chills down Terra’s spine. A sinister smile did not suit these circumstances. Or any.

He guided Terra out from her seat. He walked her out from the visitor’s hall but...but not towards her room. He...he was taking her the other way.  _ To the outside. _

Terra wanted to panic. She had to remind herself to not show it, to go along with whatever this was. There was too much as stake for her to react at the wrong moment. Even if she had a steadily building headache, she couldn’t react to what the Master was showing her.

She also noted that the Master wasn’t blindfolding her. He was letting her see all she needed in order to escape. He knew she wouldn’t, where could she go? She would risk the Haven by running there. The Doctor wasn’t in the proper time for warnings. Terra was trapped in the time trap of the Doctor’s own making. 

_ “When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now.” _

It had always been a nifty little time trap. Not when Terra was living those eighteen months out. 

_ So I’ve gotten lucky down the path _

_ Never bothered with the math _

_ Cuz it’s not for me to say _

_ Signs where I go _

_ Are hanging there to let me know _

_ It’s gonna be ok _

She couldn’t escape.

The Master knew it, and was flaunting it. Boasting and bragging that he was winning. 

He walked her all the way to the entrance. Terra’s headache got worse and worse. She wondered, was there something in the warehouse that made her want to stay more? Had his control infected her more than she thought?

_ They say you can’t stop what’s coming _

_ You can’t stop what’s coming _

_ You can’t stop what’s coming, coming around _

==TTW==

Terra stared in horror.

The TARDIS.

He had brought the TARDIS in here.

Idris was  _ screaming. _

Screaming so loud that Terra was getting a headache. It rang out in her head, like bells constantly ringing and banging on the sides of her skull. 

The TARDIS was hurting. Worse than hurting, it felt like she was dying.

Terra fell to her knees. 

“You noticed it, then?” The Master asked in delight.

Terra let out a shaking breath, more like a pained wheeze.

“She’s been asking for you for awhile.” The Master explained. Terra wheezed again. “She told me the funniest little thing, just this morning.”

_ You can’t stop what’s coming _

_ You can’t stop what’s coming- coming around _

Terra wanted to scream.

“Aren’t you curious?” The Master asked. “I mean, she’s the Doctor’s TARDIS. Wouldn’t you want to hear what she said?”

Terra could only shake her head. She gripped the sides of her head, as if that would push out the screams.

_ You can’t stop what’s coming _

_ You can’t stop what’s coming _

The Master leaned down. He pulled off one of Terra’s hands, refusing to let her mute what he had to say. “She said-” He hissed. “ _ That today was your birthday.” _

“No- no-  _ no- _ ” Terra shook her head, trying valiantly to shut him up. To shut it all up. 

“Why didn’t you tell me, huh? I would’ve brought a cake.” The Master taunted.

Terra kept shaking her head. The screams were louder now, oh so loud. The TARDIS was in such pain. Couldn’t he see that? How could he hurt the last remainder of their home? She was the last TARDIS. She deserved better than this. She shouldn’t be hurting like that.

_ But if you try you get by somehow _

“How old are you today?” Terra didn’t answer. The Master held her shoulders tighter. “Go on. Tell me. How old is the last living Time Lady?”

Terra whined, trying to curl in on herself to hide from the pain in her mind. The Master forced her to sit up right. He was grinning. This was probably his grin when he killed his workers in Ten Downing Street. 

_ He’s a madman _

_ And pretending doesn’t matter in front of me _

_ I’m the only one on Earth who knows _

The TARDIS screamed once again.

So Terra realized...she was trying to say  _ sorry. _

“...182.”

==TTW==

Terra had been taken back to the warehouse. She was exhausted, wrung out from the stress of the quick meeting. It hurt. It hurt to remember the hurt. She wanted to go back to work, that was easier. That would cause less stress.

All she had to do with the Toclafane was give them the Master’s upgrades. That was all. She wanted to scream much less around the robots. It was hard to admit but...she was happier here. Being in this workshop working on them made her happy.

But her relief was taken from her again. She should have known better. Any time she got comfortable and happy,  _ it got taken away. _

There were no Toclafane in her little makeshift factory. If she didn’t know how much more she had left, she might’ve thought it was finally over. She was never so lucky. 

Instead she had a small little cupcake.

Terra cried, falling to her knees. 

_ This birthday sucked. _

_ And she was certain the next would too. _

_ “I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies.”  _ Terra sang, trying and failing to get her breathing to steady.  _ “This is the dawning of the rest of our lives...on holiday.” _

She got up to her feet, stumbling towards her worktable. The cupcake was a mockery. Terra was half convinced it was poisoned with something. 

_ “Hear the drum pounding out of time.” _ She tapped beside the cupcake, that terrifying beat of four.  _ “Anoth- anothe- protes-” _ Terra cried, curling herself in a ball. “ _ Crossed the line.” _

_ Eleven months down _

_ Five to go _

_ Oh, Doctor, why can’t you be here now? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it seems like a small trivial thing, but I wanted to ruin her birthday. What’s the best way of doing that? Telling her that there is no hope.


	7. The Beginning of a Beautiful Hatred

He was putting all of his focus onto becoming Prime Minister. He stopped by the warehouse less and less. All those important things for completing his plan, Terra wasn’t needed as much. That didn’t mean she wasn’t visited. They were just that much more rare. 

She had been working a lot more. She was getting faster at finishing up the upgrades. She was getting better at it, the time between bots was shorter. It’s not like she could help it. Building stuff was in her blood. It was one of the few things she could do right, that made her useful.

She had been given a calendar with the coming new year. To her scorn, it was a motivational cat calendar. Couldn’t the Master have sprung for one with dogs? Terra missed her dog like she missed being able to make her own dinner.

The Master had even robbed Terra of unwrapping the calendar. Was no routine sacred? He had done it, marking Election Day in big red marker. Terra could count days now. Not that she couldn’t do that before, this just made it easier. 

Yes it was just a kitten saying _ ‘hang in there’  _ for twelve months. The kitten was tiny and gray. Terra wanted to name her Ginger.

The Master also circled the Sundays leading up to Election Day. Terra inwardly hated it. Since her birthday and the latest Christmas, the Master had been coming by more and more often. He showed off the latest newspapers singing his praises. Somedays, the speakers would shout out news segments about him.

Terra heard all the celebrity endorsements. It made her sick. Mostly because she had wanted some quiet as she worked, and those commercials were making it hard.

Lucy came by with the Master as well. They came after their  _ ‘wedding’ _ . She hadn’t looked bright and happy or like any thought was her own. Terra pitied her. Terra’s every action was controlled by the Master, but her thoughts were her’s. Lucy had the opposite problem. Terra could leave any day she wished, and the Master would have no chance to stop her. Leave behind Lucy? Terra would hate herself forever for that.

For a lot of other stuff too.

The Lucy thing wouldn’t help.

One scheduled day, the Master arrived at the usual time, Terra had started to notice a sharp down turn on her production time. She had a bad feeling about what was happening here. Any day with the Master visiting, she wasn’t given any more Toclafane to fix. There was just nothing...Terra had to sit at a table, letting herself be alone with no outlet.

Terra was sitting at their visitor room table. She had a cup of water, that was it. Just once she wanted something with bubbles. Like, soda was fun. Her lunch would be later. She hoped it was spaghetti this time. She wanted to play like noodles, and go full Ood.

It would probably end up being a peanut butter sandwich again.

The Master hadn’t brought Lucy. Terra figured she was still recovering. The week before, Terra had sang a song. She had barely made it into the second verse before Lucy was singing it too.

In Terra’s defense, it was Bohemian Rhapsody. Everyone had to sing along.

Problem was, it was distracting. So Lucy wasn’t invited to the weekly tea party.

Terra was just spinning the cup of water. She was making a mini whirlpool in the cup as the Master bragged about his latest conquest.

“...then I thought, well, how could I not accept the nomination?” The Master asked. “Ever since Harriet Jones was kicked out of the office, this country needs a leader. Such a clear cut path made just for me.”

Terra ignored him. She was much more interested in making whirlpools in her cup.

“It’s almost as if the Doctor knew I was coming, knew all of this was happening, so he made a little path just for me.” The Master explained. “But he can’t have known that. If he knew I was here, then obviously he would’ve known you were with me. That you were here.”

_ Okay...it’s spinning fast clockwise...let’s immediately spin it counterclockwise. Ohhh...the water is confused. _

“He wouldn’t have left you, right?” The Master asked. “Not the girl who fired her gun even when the Doctor told her not to carry a gun.”

Terra started humming another song. She wondered if she could make it to the chorus before the Master would interrupt her.

“How many guns are in your bag? I haven’t been able to search it and count.” The Master asked.

Ah, yes. Another reason Terra couldn’t leave. The Master had her Bag. Terra wouldn’t make it far without her Bag. If she lost some of the shit in there, she’d have to pay fines. She didn’t wanna do that, her accounting books were in there too. There was a lot at stake. Wait- she always had a rewards card in there. How could she get that free frozen yogurt with the rewards card?

“Did you forget to answer?” The Master prompted. Terra hummed, gently bobbing her head to the beat. “Norah.”

_ “Can you blow my whistle, baby, whistle, baby. Let me know. I’m gonna show you how to do it, so we’ll start real slow.”  _ Terra replied.  _ “You just put your lips together, and come real close. Blow my whistle, baby, whistle, baby.” _ She reached her cup up, having a small sip. She made sure to make eye contact with the Master before finishing: “ _ Here we go.” _

The Master went tense. His smile was less polite, shifting to manic. Terra kept her smile innocent, proud. She called it her  _ ‘American Girl Doll’  _ smile. The right mixture of innocence and creepy, Terra always lived for that line.

“You’ll be changing your tune soon enough.” The Master told her. Terra pretended that her hearts didn’t race from that, her breath didn’t forcefully slow to keep her from panicking. “Same time next week?”

Terra could only say yes. “What would I do without my weekly visit from my good ole cousin, Harold?”

The Master responded by grabbing her cup, and throwing it on the ground.

Terra gave it a 7/10 for an Andy Samberg impression. Would’ve been better if he sang the song while throwing it, or if he had worn glasses.

==TTW==

Terra should really learn sometime to stop getting into arguments. She was a Lady. They never start fights, they finish them. All that jazz. Everybody wants to be a cat, we all know the song.

She had gone into the workspace on Monday. She had barely slept, more because she heard screams in her dreams. Terra had thought she would go into another boring day of carving into human metallic heads to perfect them to the Master’s wishes.

That wasn’t what she found in her work space though.

The entire thing was cleared out. Empty of everything except the tables and rooted chair. Terra was beginning to worry as she walked to her spot. Once she was close, she let herself fall into the chair. Maybe she was just not-seeing things. That could be a thing, right? The Archangel Network was doing it’s thing, messing with her head like she was Pinky but not the Brain.

There was nothing touching her fingers, as she went through the motions of the day. Her fingers held onto only air, not the wrench she usually started with. Her eyes saw only the metal table instead of a Toclafane head. She started singing a Veggietales song about pirates that don’t do anything.

The speakers geared to life after an hour of this routine. Terra continued her pretend work. The saddest game of imaginary friends, I mean besides  _ Fight Club _ .

_ “Hello there, Norah! I bet you noticed something off today.” _ The Master began.

Terra ignored him. 

_ “You won’t believe this. But last Saturday, you finished off the last Toclafane!” _ He cheered. _ “There’s none left. You finished every last one.” _

Terra’s hand opened. Her imaginary tool fell to the ground in a quiet clatter.

_ “Now we’ve come to a crossroads. What’s left for you to do?” _

_ ‘Doctor. Doctor, hurry up.’ _

_ “I can’t have you leave, risk being spotted by your little friends, can I? But I can’t just leave you with nothing to do for days at a time either. Tricky, tricky thing.” _ The Master clicked his tongue, probably shaking his head.

_ ‘Doctor, I need you’ _

_ “So the question becomes: what should I do with Norah Rettere?” _

_ ‘Fuck that cat poster- it’s not helping. Doctor, I need you. Doctor, come and get me.’ _

_ “What  _ can _ I do with you, Norah?” _

_ ‘Doctor please save me’ _

==TTW==

Terra was not having a good day. Or week, or month, or even year, or even century, or even life. But today was what was being given attention as a no good, awful, horrible, good for nothing day.

The Master had decided on a way of filling Terra’s now empty time slot. For one day, and one day only, he brought her outside. If Terra were as naive as she sounded, she would think this was her chance. She could get away. She could wait for the Doctor and Jack and Martha, she could find a door to the Haven. She could get away.

But that meant leaving her Bag.

Leaving the TARDIS.

Leaving Lucy.

The Master knew that. He knew a lot more than Terra wanted him to know. The Master may not have been completely present, but he remembered his time as Yana. He had seen Terra through other eyes, watched her with the companions and with the Doctor and her stuff. The Master had figured out her weakness, how to toy them just enough to make Terra his unwilling puppet.

Terra felt like a basement wife. Stuck underground for years, finally allowed freedom that didn’t count. Nobody she talked to would even believe her. They barely believed the actual basement wives. Terra had seen those cases, had seen how those women were ignored for so long. Yeah this was a different reality, but the rules in society hadn’t changed like that.

She was stuck.

She couldn’t leave.

Knowing that didn’t make her feel any safer from that. 

The Master had brought her to his offices. Terra was walked through the election campaign office. A few people were scattered about, the probably bare minimum needed to run this kind of office. Terra’s hearts were pounding out of her chest, she was surprised the cartoon effect hadn’t taken over. 

He introduced her to the staff, told them that she was his cousin interning here for college credit. Or maybe that’s the human excuse Terra cooked up. Names and faces blurred past for Terra. She put on the best fake look she could muster. A smile wide enough and sincere looking, it had always fooled her mom and dad back Home. She laughed at the right jokes, made a few herself. She seemed to them all calm, cool, collected. Someone who was believably related to their boss.

The Master walked Terra over to a secluded office. All that was in the room was a bare single student desk, a ceiling light, a laptop, and that same motivational cat calendar. This one was different though. Instead of the Sundays marked, this one had various days in the week marked. Her work schedule.

Terra had another job.

Great.

“Does it come with a loyalty program?” Terra asked, taking a seat in the desk. Ah, it didn’t even have a desk in front for her to lean her feet on. Every desk needed a footrest, everybody knew that. “Like...work three days and get a free toaster?”

The Master shook his head. “Nope, sorry. Only loyalty program here is genuine loyalty.”

“Oh so not the traditional sort of loyalty program. It’s loyalty program _ ming. _ ” Terra joked. She giggled to herself, taking anything she could get.

The Master smiled. “Yes, it’s always been a speciality.” He bragged. “But that’s not why you’re here today.”

Terra should have lost the smile on her face. She didn’t. She kept it on through sheer force of will. Reminders of Author awful family photos that carried on for twenty minutes because someone’s smile was perfect enough. “Then why am I here?”

He turned on the laptop. Terra watched silently as a screen just full of code appeared.

“You know about Archangel Network?” The Master asked. “I told you about it last year.”

“While last year was weird for me.” Terra replied. “Recap it for me, if you don’t mind.”

The Master pointed at the code. “You’re my new IT girl. It’s up to you to keep this from breaking.” He pushed the laptop closer to her. “Every now and again, it glitches. It’ll take more than a single button to refresh it. Just like old times, isn’t it?”

Terra hummed. “It is.”  _ ‘I can shoot you in the head for the full picture’. _

It was like he could see the thought on her face. The Master laughed, a warning beneath the action. “You’ll just make sure nothing goes wrong. That’s it. Because if anything were to happen, then the humans would be affected. They get so confused. When humans get confused, I find it easier to get rid of them. Much easier than putting in effort to fixing it. There’s not enough time in my day to micromanage like I used to. Hence: IT girl.”

Terra’s smile fell. She could hear the warning in the statement. The implication that some humans had seen through it already, that the Master had handled the issues. Also...that if Terra caused the issue...she imagined she would be thrown back into her room.

All alone.

For so long...just herself and the voices in her head.

Terra didn’t want that. She didn’t want to obey the Master, but she didn’t want to be thrown back into her room.

She remembered those days- from the second go around of Doomsday. All those days stuck inside her room, chained to her bed, no outlet for her but the screaming. No contact with anyone but a ghost that wasn’t a ghost.

Terra didn’t want that again. She  _ couldn’t  _ take that again. Especially not for as long as it would take for this all to start. It...it would break her to a point that she wasn’t sure she could come back from. Not even her sister could pull her off that ledge...of being stuck in a room for so long...not even able to tell when she’d get out. Just thinking about it had her scared stiff in the seat.

“So three days a week?” Terra asked.

She wasn’t selling her soul. It was do it, or lose her soul from madness. This was the better way. Terra had no other choice.

The Doctor wasn’t going to save her. She had to do it herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That song Whistle by the way, is Radio-Terra for ‘suck my dick’. I’m very proud of that. Also proud of everything else in this chapter. Yep. Proud. Everything in here is gold. Nothing you say will make me change my mind.


	8. Doubt Creeps In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in apology for all the harsh chapters full of only pain and angst, everyone will be happy to know it’s coming to a close. It’s just one more chapter until Sound of Drums.  
> Thanks to everyone that stuck around!  
> This chapter is mostly stuff from my story Hidden By Aliens, and I wanted to bring this over here just in case you haven’t read it. It was this or more angst.

Let’s say there was this...group...that messed with powers beyond their understanding. Let’s pretend that they had done something collously stupid. Like, like let’s say they did the classic of  _ ‘pushing the big red button’. _ Oh and there were signs all around saying not to do that. Signs that said  _ ‘danger: do not press’ _ ,  _ ‘no really don’t do it’ _ ,  _ ‘what the hell is wrong with you- don’t push it’ _ .

Can you picture this situation? Cool.

Now imagine that these people had missed an important step in pushing this button that should not be pushed. That this tiny little almost insignificant detail changed, making pushing that button so much worse than it was.

So...you’re the only person that knows that button is gonna get pushed. This is a Doctor Who universe with a bright red button that shouldn’t be touched. Of course someone pushes the button. You know that button is being pushed. You can’t do much to stop it. Your best bet is to keep that single button push from becoming a world ending event.

Unfortunately, you can’t do it alone. You’ve tried. You tried for like a while to do it alone. It’s never gone well...you only died a handful of times. Still...recruitment helped.

The button was pushed. All of reality was at risk. Not just this complex Doctor Who reality, nah that button was fucking up with your powers. Your reality jumping powers were being challenged by that red button. Things were in deep trouble.

But the people you recruit...despite all efforts...are idiots. You found out that the one job you gave them, they sucked at it. 

You had to fix this problem yourself.

That was how Terra Johnson felt waking up one disastrous day that May.

==TTW==

She slept more often now. Her work hours reflected the human work schedule, and that meant she stayed in her room. The doors were locked, obviously. Terra ignored that.

She had been working in Archangel for three months. The air outside was warming for spring. Not too much, from what springs Terra could remember in America. Some days she wished to go home, to get out of the pesky London weather. Terra had work to complete. She never left a job half finished like this.

Besides, this work was finally starting to get fun. She could see how close it was until Election Day.

She was so close.

All of this deliberate self-sacrifice would be almost done because she was so close.

Something startled her awake. Terra opened her eyes, rising straight upright in her bed. 

_ Something was wrong...Something was very _ very _ wrong... _

Terra took a small breath, calming herself down. Her dreams had been worrisome. Something should really be done about that...however that was not the issue. Something else had gone wrong. She opened her mouth, letting whatever was stuck inside her mind fall out.

_ “Do you want to play with me?” _ Terra sang.  _ “Reality, reality. Do you want to fuck with me, reality, reality? Who’s playing games...who’s playing games today? Funny games, funny games.” _

She climbed off her bed, sitting in the space beside. She took a meditative pose. After a quick breathing exercise she found it. It was sticking out like a sore thumb...on a creature that never got sores...and didn’t have any thumbs. Okay this statement got away from her.

_ “So you want to play me, Torchwood Three. Torchwood Three...now you’ll get a piece of me. Piece of me...”  _ Terra got a manic smile.

Lucky today was her day off.

==TTW==

Terra went into her empty workspace at her personal mental asylum. It had been empty of anything useful since the Toclafane were done.

Her little Ginger poster was still on the wall, covered in pink hash marks. There was a tiny note above Ginger that said  _ ‘no Silence- just Radio’  _ so Terra didn’t worry about the Silence being in here. It was still a better place to think. It was big, quiet, and had perfect acoustics. 

Terra took her normal spot at her desk. There was a disquieting feeling sitting there without any robots to fix. This felt like walking through your old preschool. Or seeing an old toxic friend after parting on bad terms.

She sat in her chair, tuning into her favorite radio station.

==TTW==

Terra had found the first member of the Torchwood Team. They had been so easy to find, grabbing their cellphones and practically  _ begging  _ for help.

She may seem like one, but Terra wasn’t a heartless monster.

“Owen? Owen.” Toshiko Sato called out.

_ ‘Last time I saw you, there was a space pig _ .’ Terra recalled.  _ ‘Penelope and Rebel were great friends, last I saw them.’ _

The Torchwood Agent turned her head. Terra had made sure she was safe back in her chair, her perfectly functioning mental projection her only connection to the outside world.

Terra smiled, giving a little curtsy. She had been given a new wardrobe by the Maste

==TTW==

Tosh turned her head. Time seemed to go all fuzzy for a moment. Tosh found herself focusing on a figure down the hall.

It definitely wasn’t Owen. It was a girl. Tosh could only see a bright red dress, everything else was blurry and faint. It reminded Tosh of a mirage that she couldn’t blink back.

She was staring at Tosh with an intensity that scared her. Tosh felt her heart pounding out in her chest, but she herself was unable to move. Frozen in fear, her body stuck on the fight-or-flight instinct.

“Who are you?” Tosh questioned, her voice shaking.

The girl opened her mouth to speak. She gave no answer, instead beginning to dance. The ballet seemed disturbed and demented, only serving to further leave Tosh with a feeling of disquiet.  _ “Sometimes you gotta fill your jets, sometimes you gotta slow your breath. Sometimes you gotta step into the Rift and face the thing you dread.” _ The girl sang.

“Who are you?” Tosh called out again.

_ “Cause there are monsters and there are men. There are monsters that live in my head. There are monsters that we all should dread.”  _ She paused her dance, walking closer to Tosh. Her intense eyes made Tosh feel sick, like something wrong had gone down her throat. “ _ So join the fight and try your might. Open the Rift tonight.” _

“What monsters?” Tosh feared the answer. Feared anything worse coming through the Rift than whatever had already stepped across.

The girl winked. She faded away, as if she’d never been there at all.

==TTW==

Terra sighed as she came back to herself. Her hands were clinging tightly to the desk. Songs were getting louder and louder in her head. Terra could barely find her thoughts behind the singing.

She took a slow breath. It took a while to get her brain back to focus.

There was still a lot of work left today.

She could feel the Rift opening wider and wider. She could hear a voice calling out from inside. She hadn’t heard that voice in many years. Terra wanted to keep him safe.

==TTW==

Ianto Jones winced. A sharp sound went off. He turned to the right- where it was loudest.

There was a girl. She was just standing there, facing the cell with the Roman. She was wearing a bright red dress. Ianto couldn’t understand why he wasn’t running or calling out for Jack.

_ “There are forces in this world-” _ Her voice was low and melodic, hypnotizing like the sirens of legend.  _ “-that mean you real harm if your soul is unarmed. It is something on your phone. We need every hand for  _ [ _ a scrum _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19186222) _ that’s undermanned.” _

“Who are you?” Ianto questioned. His voice was shaking but he tried to muscle through it. “Why are you here- how did you get in?”

_ “ _ [ _ The truly good versus the truly bad _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19210226) _. You’d better learn to  _ [ _ discern it quickly, _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19186226) _ Ianto, it’s the only chance we have.” _ She continued to sing _. _ She twirled around, stopping when she faced himself.  _ “You’d better align your soul with what’s good and right. Join the only fight that’s left and open the Rift tonight.” _

“This isn’t happening.” Ianto shook his head, his entire body shaking. 

“Yeah, it’s all in your head.” She winked. “Doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”

She vanished.

==TTW==

Terra laughed. Oh, the look on his face was so precious!

Besides that- the Roman that called himself Poptart was actually very nice. She hoped he got out like he wanted. 

She hoped that she could get this done before bed.

==TTW==

Chloe got distracted for a moment. She paused, nearly tripping over her own shoes. She paused for a moment to right them when something caught her attention. Something was down the alleyway. She heard someone...singing? She walked down an alleyway to see who.

“Hello?” She asked.

The figure was standing perfectly still. Chloe wondered how someone in such bright red could be ignored like that, by the other passersby on the street behind her.

Then Chloe realized she couldn’t look away from her. 

_ “For there are monsters and there are men. There was a monster that lived in my head. It is the monsters who should live in dread.” _ The girl was singing, spinning in a circle as if she wasn’t paying attention to anything else. The spinning was making her red dress flare out.  _ “And fear my might! Join the fight. Open the Rift tonight.” _

The girl popped off. Chloe fearfully stumbled back, running from the alley. She bumped into Gwen.

“What is it? What's wrong?" Gwen asked.

“Nothing.” Chloe lied. “Just...this whole thing. ‘S got me on my toes.”

Gwen nodded, understanding.

==TTW==

Terra smiled fondly, tracing a finger along her kitten calendar. She had never met Chloe before...the Torchwood Agent was a nice lady. 

There was a lot of work left. She was running out of time.

==TTW==

Owen Harper was at a bar. He figured getting drunk would help himself forget faster. Or help him forget when Jack retconned him.

He pulled out his phone, searching his contacts. Maybe he could have a quick fuck. There were bound to be a lot of folks looking for an easy hookup.

He winced at a sudden sharp pain in his head. Ah it was coming that fast, then?

There was singing to the side. Owen wrote it off at first, thinking it was just a karaoke singer or a fucking jukebox. It was neither of those things. A girl sat in the barstool beside his. 

Owen jumped back in surprise. He couldn’t say for sure, but she was too young/naive looking to be in a bar like this.

_ “Look me in the eye now, sir and make a solemn vow t _ [ _ o become your best self now _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19186238) _.” _

Bloody hell, that was scary. Her voice was calm, still striking him deep in his head. Owen couldn’t make himself look away from her. He wanted to pay attention-  _ had  _ to pay attention. She wasn’t letting him ignore her. Like a ignore-her switch around her had been flipped.

_ “ _ [ _ I know our opponent, sir _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19574324) _ , requires nothing less than your absolute best.”  _ The girl sang. She pet Owen on the head, moving it down to grip his shoulder. She stated her eyes into his. Owen could only see a reflection of his own panicked brown. “ _ I know it's hard, the world is pain and distraction bu _ [ _ t there's occasions met by lesser men who took the lead _ ](https://genius.com/Team-starkid-monsters-and-men-lyrics#note-19186291) _! It must be you.” _

“What’s gotta be me?” Owen hissed out through clenched teeth.

_ “Never take your office lightly.”  _ The girl sang unhelpfully.

“No seriously, who the bloody hell are you?” Owen snapped. “Or is a  _ what  _ better here?”

She smirked. And if Owen was a lesser man, he might’ve shit himself.  _ “There are monsters and there are men, there are monsters that live in my head. It is the monsters who shall live in dread. So, join the fight against the real plight.” _

She grabbed his wrist. She squeezed it tight, nearly breaking the bone beneath the skin.

“Bloody fuck-”

_ “When monsters are real you’d better forge a heart of steel. To cast the darkness from light you’ve gotta go open the Rift tonight.” _

Owen jumped back. The girl vanished, fucked off in a blink like she’d not been there at all. Owen’s phone clattered to the ground. 

“Do you want another drink there, mate?” The barman joked.

Owen snatched his phone. The song was bloody repeating in his head over and over again in some fucked up loop.

_ Open the Rift tonight _

_ Open the Rift tonight _

==TTW==

Terra fell back onto the floor. She gasped, choking while trying to get back to sanity. Her hearts were racing painfully in her chest.

She couldn’t keep doing this. She- it was becoming too much.

_ But there was still work. She just had a little bit more...just a few more hours. _

_ She would save her friend. _

_ She owed him that much. _

Terra went back to her room. She should be in bed for these next bits, it would make it easier to rest between songs.

==TTW==

Lawrence Latshaw was on the hunt. Usually, he wouldn't hunt if things were this chaotic. Unfortunately Lawrence hadn't had much to eat beforehand. That was the problem with chaos. It never let you plan for it.

He heard a target. He silently apologized to whoever it was before giving chase.

He ended up in an alleyway. The person at the end had their back to him, their heartbeat fast for someone standing so still. It was a she, the red dress was a dead giveaway.

She wasn’t even trying to hide. Or Lawrence hoped she wasn’t trying, cause this was shit.

He would do better to sneak up on her.

_ “Is this what I died for? To make him suffer more, drifting aimlessly into hell.”  _ The probably terrified girl was singing. Then again...the singing was oddly level for someone facing death.  _ “There’s something that’s beautiful being awake for my funeral. The Rift must open now.” _

Lawrence approached the girl. He noticed something odd about her heartbeat. He’d heard it before. He could hear it running around the city, miles and miles away. It was the same heartbeat, Lawrence realized in a rush. But Leah didn’t have...wait what color was this girl’s hair? It was bright.

“Did you know your heart is beating very funny?”

_ “The plans for my black heart’s vengeful bite, born into endless misery. Still...I wasn’t an archangel Heaven sent to break through my blood bound reality.” _

Lawrence walked until he was standing right behind her. The girl showed no reaction to the man over her shoulder. “Who are you?”

She turned around. A smile was on her face, though her amber eyes were full of tears.

_ “My heart is black, you see. He’s coming to my reality.” _ She warned. _ “When my heart was black, I couldn’t change him back ‘cause my heart was black you see.” _

And Lawrence understood. He just really hoped he was wrong. “Your...your heartbeat is familiar.”

“ _ At first you didn’t know what she was to you.”  _ She started to sing again. Honestly, these songs were really creepy and needed to stop.  _ “At first you didn’t know why you cared, or why you wanted to keep her away from the monsters at night.” _

“Who are you?”

“ _ My heart is black for me. Only her ashes have seen this sea.”  _ The girl explained.  _ “When my heart is black there’s no turning back. Cause my heart is black-” _

Lawrence covered her mouth with his hand. The girl froze, like a video on pause. “You can stop singing now.” He lowered his hand.

To her credit, she stopped singing. “Your alter gave him power...a power he greatly valued. It’s been taken from him. I don’t know how long he’s been drifting.” The girl grabbed at her hair. “He’s calling out. I hear him. Why can’t anyone else hear him?”

“Who am I helping?!”

“He’s going to manifest. Reach out to him, through the Rift. He needs you-”

Then she was gone.

Lawrence had to call Leah.

==TTW==

Things were starting to hurt now.

Everything was starting to hurt. Her body, her head, her throat...

Terra had to work...she couldn’t leave it unfinished. She just...she needed to sleep. All the work was overloading her. There wasn’t time...there wasn’t time...everything was running out of time.

She had only a short nap.

She woke up, screaming.

_ “JACK!” _

==TTW==

Something was brushing his forehead, right where he had been shot.

“You’re not dead yet.” A voice spoke. 

Jack Harkness had no idea where he was right now. Everything seemed...empty. There was just nothing. Was this what death was like, what Suzie talked about?

No it wasn’t empty. There had been a voice. Jack turned to it. He saw a girl, standing tall in a bright red dress. He knew he was close enough to see her face. He just couldn’t place it.

“Do I know you?” He asked her.

She smiled, gently. She held out her hand towards him. Jack still couldn’t recognize her face.  _ “Look me in the eye now, Jack, and make a solemn vow to become your best self now.” _

He had never heard this singer before...but he recognized that smile. 

Jack reached for her hand. “You can’t be...”

“ _ The time has arrived now, Jack, when my heart is black, it’s time to bring him back.” _

“It’s not the Rift.” Jack realized. “Leah, her blood got on it...it’s not the Rift opening. It’s  _ you _ . Everything here came  _ from you. _ ”

She smiled again, tears pouring freely down her cheeks. She reached for him again, looking more desperate than before. 

_ “I can show you the path but only you can walk it!” _ She warned, seeming to be screaming at him from a distance that kept growing.  _ “If he is on earth who knows what becomes of it? The Time has run out. What will you do?” _

“Terra!” Jack called out. He tried to grab her hand.

_ “SAVE HIM JACK!”  _ She screamed.

He grabbed her hand, and understood it all.

==TTW==

Terra let out a clenched scream, coming out of the mediation for the last time. Doing all of these things had taken a lot from her. 

She could feel him- sense Anthony out there again in the world.

Terra smiled in warmth.  _ “Do you all see what I see? What I know, what I see? Do you all see the memories tomorrow reminds me?” _

She reached out to him. She used a power more focused. A power beyond Time Lords. A power beyond  _ anything  _ the Master came up with.

_ “Tomorrow will come. Tomorrow won’t come. Tomorrow comes today.” _ Terra shut out outside distractions, the too loud sounds of planet earth. She dug deep. She dug quietly.  _ “Tomorrow will come. Tomorrow won’t come. Will tomorrow come today? And turn the light off-” _

There. She felt it. 

Terra’s eyes shot open.

She could feel him in her mind. Deep a bond long thought dead, long  _ deserved  _ dead.

“I see you.” Terra stated. She stood up, envisioning Anthony across from her. “Do you see me?”

The vampire blinked, looking over Terra in confusion. “Who...I know you- but I can’t. I can’t know you.”

“The first words you ever said to me- the real me, when I woke up- were  _ ‘why the fuck are you still alive?’ _ ” Terra recited. Anthony’s eyes bugged out. “You were having a bad day.”

“What...how can I be-”

“Trust Lawrence. You did once. You can again.” Terra promised. “I have to go. He’ll be coming. I can’t- I can’t let him see you.  _ You need to go!” _

“Mor-” Anthony began to yell.

His appearance popped away.

_ “9...7...5...3...2...What if tomorrow...” _

The door was thrown open.

Terra stared blankly at the Master walking in. “You think I wouldn’t notice?” He spat. “Your little tricks won’t work. You can’t protect him, or any of his little friends.”

Ah yes. She had completed a failed mission to stop the Himalayan trip from happening. It was a plan destined to fail, just like the 3 o’clock-Stealing-Of-The-Laser-Sonic from _ Last of the Time Lords _ . She hadn’t wanted it to work. She wanted it to distract, keeping him from noticing her projections outward through Archangel.

The Master reeled his hand back, slapping her across the face. She let herself fall to the ground. She didn’t pick herself up.

“That’ll teach you to sneak past me.” The Master spat out. He stormed out from her room, locking the door behind him.

She pushed herself upright. She smoothed down her red hair, closing her eyes.  _ “Mind like glass...shattered stone...” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You lived! Congrats. Get ready- we are on a fast track leading up to something actually canon. Hope y’all liked this breath of air...technically.


	9. The Lazarus Effect Redux

_ Doubt comes in _

_ The wind is changing _

_ Doubt comes in _

_ How cold it’s blowing _

Terra was given a one time only one of a kind deal to keep herself out of trouble. If she did it right, none of her companions would be preemptively hurt. The Master also said he wouldn’t  _ ‘accidentally’  _ kill everyone in his campaign office.

She went forward with the mission. Even though she had no promise that he wouldn’t  _ purposefully  _ kill them. It may seem like a useless distinction but Terra thought it was important.

Her red dress was ready. Terra had been looking at it for ages. She didn’t like dresses. They never let her feel safe. She’d never felt safe in anything not pants. She wanted something with  _ legs _ . That required asking, which Terra was not going to do. There was no telling what would happen if she  _ asked  _ the Master for something

_ (Well maybe not...maybe it would be totally fine. He’s been alright except for the time I deliberately made him mad) _

Terra hadn’t planned to get slapped across the face. It had been a possibility, not a real  _ thing _ .

_ (She made him mad. Why had she expected any different? He’s stressed-) _

Terra had to get ready for the event. She had spent so long as a Fairy Godmother, what was one more night?

_ Doubt comes in _

_ And meets a stranger _

_ Walking on a road alone _

==TTW==

_ Where is she? _

_ Where is she now? _

She walked in as the machine slowed to a halt.

It was called being fashionably late. Not that anybody paid her any mind. She had gotten accidentally good at making people forget she existed. Just humans, apparently. Terra thinks it was the year spent surrounded by annoying Toclafane.

She walked into the building, the chaos from the machine taking everyone’s attention. She could have looked at anything, on coming in. She could have looked at the machine itself, the smoke from the almost explosion still coming off it. Maybe the crowd of humans, the Jones family all grouped together in a dark parallel to the future. 

Sweet Martha Jones, who was watching the proceedings with hesitance and fear.

Anyone else would have looked at the Doctor. The Doctor in his James Bond style suit, so young and full of the belief that he and Terra were the last.

Which is the only person that had Terra’s attention. The young Time Lady in a black dress. Indeed, she made that dress look good. Terra could appreciate a dress that black- it made Terra Two look slimming. Her brown hair was actually done up all nice and with light touches of makeup on her face. She remembered wearing that face, remembered how her fears were the same even now. Terra looked over at her old face, and wondered how it had gone so wrong so fast.

Terra was walking in the path of her own footsteps. Steps that she had made almost two years ago. 

Two years ago...my how time flew when you were stuck in a fear filled fog of anxiety and depression. She was such a scared little thing...Not that Terra Three was any better. 

She stayed in the shadows of the party. No human meeting her eyes, and no Time Lord even knowing she was there.

Terra didn’t even cry. Criers here slapped, after all. She hadn’t fallen so far off the deep end she forgot about  _ that. _

_ Doubt comes in _

_ Who am I? _

_ Where do I think I’m going? _

==TTW==

_ Doubt comes in _

_ Who am I? _

_ Why am I all alone? _

But they just dashed off, quick as you like.

Francine huffed. Leo tried to assure her. She wouldn't hear of it. She walked to a nearby table, searching for napkins.

“You might be needing this.” Terra greeted, holding out a handkerchief.

Francine snatched the offered handkerchief. “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

“Do you know that man, that girl?” Terra asked.

“No. They’re friends of my daughter.” Francine explained.

Terra tilted her head, eyes watching Francine in a way that spoke of compassion and understanding.

“The man, says he’s a doctor. I know they must have met at work but I know something is off.” Francine admitted. “And beyond that, how could she have met an American? Much less one that young?”

“You’re such a caring mum. Why can’t they see that?” Terra asked. “You’re only trying to help.” She turned on her feet, walking back into the throngs of the party.

Francine would only remember that flash of red.

_ Doubt comes in _

_ Who am I? _

_ Who am I against him? _

==TTW==

_ Where is she? _

_ Where is she now? _

"She'll be all right. The Doctor and Terra, they'll look out for her. And she'll look out for them." Tish assured her mum.

Francine shook her head in disgust. She kept the ice pressed onto her son's head. "She turned her back on us, went in there with that thing for him."

"He must be some guy." Leo joked. Francine gave him a withering glare.

"Maybe she loves him. That girl was nice too." Tish suggested.

"She just met him." Francine dismissed in a huff.

"Is you daughter still in there with the Doctor and Terra?" Terra asked.

Francine turned round to her. "Do you know them? Do you know the Doctor?"

Terra had a tight expression. Like she was holding back a great deal. "They're dangerous. And there are things...things that a person should know when dealing with him. With her too."

"What things?" Francine asked.

So the girl stepped forward, and told her.

_ Why would he let me win? _

_ Why would he let her go? _

_ Who am I to think that he wouldn't deceive me just to make me leave alone? _

==TTW==

_ Is this a trap being laid for me? _

_ Is this a trick being played on me? _

Terra was guided back to the Saxon campaign office. She knew it was only a halfway point. She would be taken back to her room in her mental asylum soon. 

_ I don’t want to go back in the box. _ She thought to herself. Terra had learned that  _ ‘Norah Rettere’s’  _ opinion didn’t matter. So she kept it in her head.

Terra spotted the Master inside. The office was empty, yet Terra felt no relief. She was let inside, walking up to her usual office. The Master joined her in the tiny room. 

“How did it go? I heard there was some excitement.” The Master explained, sitting on her desk to smile knowingly at her. 

Terra sat down, adjusting her dress. “The device malfunctioned. The Doctor and my past self handled the crisis. Complete with killing off the guy who did it.”

“How did you do it?” The Master asked.

Terra smiled politely. “I don’t know what you mean, Cousin Harry.”

“Alright, be that way.” The Master reclined in the chair, grabbing one of Terra’s pens to toss up in the air. “Did you do what I asked?”

Still smiling, ever so cordial and polite even in the face of Harold Saxon, Terra leaned back in her seat. She reached into her dress, right between her breasts. She pulled out a small flash drive, painted pink with a blue  _ ‘3’ _ on the front. “Amazing the things that get ignored when people are panicking.”

The Master grabbed the flash drive. His grin of madness returned. The smile of a demented man who saw only victory on the horizon. “And did you add anything special?”

Terra tightened her expression. “Why would I do that, Cousin Harry? I’m just the docile Norah.”

The Master gave her a look, saying he clearly disagreed. “So if I download what’s on this drive, nothing will happen to my computer, or to any of my stuff?”

Terra showed no reaction.

“Hmm. And I was starting to think you were getting too quiet.” The Master tossed the flash drive in the air. He caught it, tucking it back into his suit. “I’ll have to clean it before I work on the plans. I would  _ hate  _ for these plans to be faulty.”

Terra let her expression shift. Just the barest of twitches of disappointment.

“I would need a test monkey...make sure it works on our kind.” The Master explained. “Make sure it’s all in order...”

Her fingers flinched. Terra our back on her most polite smile. “You don’t have any of my DNA.”

He shrugged. “You say that like it would be hard to get some.”

Terra kept her breathing steady. She knew she could spiral into a panic at any moment. Through sheer panic, she kept herself from showing that panic. It was done poorly. “Did you want me to correct it, Cousin Harry?”

“Norah you are a delight.” The Master patted her head. “But I think I can do that myself. Tell me: did you do  _ all  _ that I asked?”

Terra couldn’t look him in the eyes anymore. All she could see was Terra Two’s night long panicked thoughts. The pained cries of the Jones family, Francine’s sharp words against the Time Lords, Martha’s bitter goodbye from the Doctor, yes she had gotten Rebel after it all but that didn’t stop the memories from causing Terra physical pain.

“Francine Jones...was she a good conversationalist?” The Master asked. “My agents liked her, from a distance.”

“She was.” Terra confirmed, aware that her voice sounded flatter. 

_ “They’re people of danger. Everything around them tonight, they do this all the time. And they drag your daughter into it. Have you seen her? She follows them- follows  _ him _ \- like a loyal dog. The Doctor and Terra Johnson are not kind to those closest to them. They tend to get burned the worst. Keep her safe, keep her away, please, give us a call if you can’t.” _

The words were ash in her mouth. Terra was used to the taste. It helped her swallow them by reminding herself she hadn’t truly lied. 

“She’ll call us.” Terra explained.

The Master hopped off the desk. He walked to the door to the office, pulling it open. He paused before walking out. “You sound so certain. ”

Terra stood up. She fixed her dress, smoothing down the few wrinkles she’d gotten from sitting down. “I remember it...she and Martha talked on the phone. It was...any mother worth the title would want to help after a phone call like that.”

“Well in that case, Cousin Norah.” The Master praised her. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

Terra was going to gain an appreciation for ash if she kept this up.

_ I used to see the way the world could be _

_ But now the way it is, is all I see and _

_ Doubt comes in... _

==TTW==

She was back in the box.

But it was the last night. As easily as the sun would rise, it would not set again with Terra in this room. No matter the cost- she wouldn’t come back. 

She was tapping a beat of four on the floor. Her voice echoed in that cell. She sang a few simple notes.

_ “Doubt comes in, the wind is changing. Doubt comes in, how cold it’s blo-” _

A guard slammed a fist on her door. The girl stopped singing to switch to humming.

“Would you  _ shut up _ ?” The guard demanded. “That song is-  _ just quit it _ .” He marched off without another word.

She waited a moment before humming again.

_ “Where is she? Where is she, now?”  _ She sang until she was certain the guard had left. Moving silently, she knelt on the ground. A deep breath in, a deep breath out.  _ “Mind of glass...shattered stone...” _

She repeated this mantra over and over. Until it stuck.

==TTW==

She had no way of knowing that half way across town was a man. He was leaning against the frame of a door, looking up at the sky with hesitation and fear.

He had completed their mission. But if Gamora was right...as she often was when Terra was involved...they were paying a huge price for it.

_ “Orpheus, you are not alone. _ ” Drax sang. It was a childish foolish hope that his song was being brought to her, as it would’ve been in his home reality.  _ “I’m right behind you, and I have been all along. The darkest hour of the darkest night causes right before-” _

The door behind him opened. Pity he was leaning on it, and as such had no support. He fell back onto the ground. 

Gamora stares down at him. “Dude.”

Drax has no response that would be smooth or eloquent. He was sure if he hadn’t just smacked his head against the floor he would’ve come up with something funny. “Help me up?”

“No.” Gamora walked back into the Haven, ignoring his plight like he was a hapless turtle on his back.

Drax figured he should probably get up. There wasn’t a lot of time left before they had to go to work. If he kept the boss waiting-

“You’re a heartless whore.” A voice snarked, walking over to the door. She held her arm out to Drax.

“I have a spine.” Gamora called over her shoulder.

Terra laughed. Drax took hold of her arm, letting himself be pulled to his feet. The force was enough that when he was standing there was barely any space between him and Terra. He stared at her, his heart pounding.

“You know better than to lean on doors.” Terra noted. She reached up, brushing some dust off his shirt.

Drax couldn’t care less about that. “You were in a bad way back then, weren’t you?”

Terra’s smile shifted just a bit. No longer a happy carefree smile, Drax knew this new one. Her _ ‘well you’re right but I have to make you forget that _ ’ smile. “It’s Taco Tuesday. If we hurry, we can get to the food before it’s all gone.” She turned tail, not waiting to see if Drax was following.

He would, of course, always. But only because he knew it was pointless to ask if he could go help that younger version, the one lying all alone in the cold and lonely.

There would be a chance to see her soon...a whole year of chances soon...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? Way less angsty...  
> Next week...oh boy oh boy...oh boy oh boy...


	10. Sound of Drums

Panic.

Complete  _ panic.  _

That’s the only way to describe what the Doctor was feeling right now. She was gone. The TARDIS was gone. All three of them, gone. And there was nothing he could do. 

With Terra’s voice ringing in his ears he rushed off to the door. Jack and Martha were yelling for him, pressing the door shut. The Future Kind kept trying to reach in. 

The Doctor reached for Jack’s manipulator. He had to get her back. He had to find her- to make sure his last ditch effort to help her had worked.

His hearts were racing in his chest. He pushed past that fear. The settings on the manipulator were easy to fix. They would be going much faster if Jack was constantly moving his arm.

“Hold still! Don’t move! Hold it still!” The Doctor scolded.

“I’m telling you, it’s broken. It hasn’t worked for years.” Jack tried to dismiss.

“That’s because you didn’t have me.” The Doctor countered. Terra could have fixed it too, probably would have insisted if the Master- “Martha, grab hold, now!”

The two companions grabbed the manipulator. In a flash, they left Utopia behind.

They landed in an alleyway going by the smell. The Doctor had to ignore the swirling pain in the head. He had to find her. There wasn’t any time to slow down.

“Oh, my head.” Martha complained. 

“Time travel without a capsule. That’s a killer.” The Doctor agreed, not focusing on the humans with him.

He tried to reach out to Terra, to the TARDIS. He should be able to sense them, to spot them. Terra must have gotten away from the Master. She was plucky like that. Maybe that was his own wishful thinking...hoping that Terra had gotten free.

There was no telling.

“Still, at least we made it. Earth, twenty-first century by the looks of it. Talk about lucky.” Jack praised. 

“That wasn’t luck, that was  _ me _ .” The Doctor snapped his correction out. He didn’t want to hear them. He wanted to find her.

_ She was gone. _

_ He couldn’t feel her. _

The Doctor was reminded of her falling into the Void, all over again. There was nothing in his mind to tell him where she was. The Doctor tried reaching out again and again. There wasn’t anything in his mind from her.

“The moral is, if you’re going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator.” Jack cheered to Martha. But there was a hard edge in his voice. Like he wanted to have said it to one person in particular. With her gone, well why say anything?

“But this Master bloke, he’s got the TARDIS.” Martha explained. “He could have taken Terra anywhere in time and space.”

“No, he’s here. Trust me.” The Doctor argued. 

“Who is he, anyway? And that voice at the end, that wasn’t the Professor.” Martha recalled.

“If the Master’s a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated.” Jack reasoned.

“Like Terra? I thought only the girls did that.” Martha asked.

“No. The men can change too.” Jack explained. He looked at the Doctor, who was still searching the street.

He was the only one that noticed a homeless man tapping a beat of four on his mug.

“Then how are we going to find them?” Martha asked, beginning to panic. When neither of the men knew how to track down their kidnapped friend, she worried they would never see her again. Martha could only go off from how the Doctor had reacted to the revelation of another Time Lord. Terra had been tense too. 

Her question brought the Doctor away from that suspicious beat. “I’ll know him, the moment I see him. Time Lords always do.” The Doctor stated, but gave up no more information.

It didn’t make Martha feel better about this whole thing. She tried to look around, see whatever the Doctor saw. Instead her attention went to all the  _ ‘Vote Saxon’ _ posters around the square. “But hold on. If he could be anyone, we missed the election. But it can’t be...”

A crowd was beginning to gather around a large screen up the square. A news report was coming up. It was the election results. The crowd was smiling in delight, excited at something that hadn’t even been revealed yes.

The Doctor walked over to it. He glared at the screen. He knew before the face even appeared what it would show. The chances of it...how could the Master had done anything else?

_ “Mister Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters _ .”

“I said I knew that voice.” Martha explained.

Jack stood behind the Doctor. Both men glared at the news broadcast like it had personally offended them.

“When he spoke inside the TARDIS. I’ve heard that voice hundreds of times.” Martha explained. “I’ve seen him. We all have. That was the voice of  _ Harold Saxon. _ ”

The news alert shifted to the image of the man himself. He had a blonde woman walking by his side, and no one else. They were surrounded by cameras, smiling in delight at them all. 

“That’s him. He’s Prime Minister.” The Doctor told them, horror filling his chest at how far things had fallen apart so fast. “The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain.”

The Master leaned over, kissing the blonde.

“The Master and his  _ wife _ ?”

“Doctor.” Jack asked, panting, seeming to be holding himself back from punching through the screen. “Is that-”

The Doctor glanced at the screen again. He could understand Jack’s confusion. “It’s not Terra.”

Jack relaxed only slightly. Terra wasn’t the one being forced to kiss the Master, but that meant they were no closer to finding Terra than before.

_ “This country has been sick. This country needs healing.”  _ The Master reported. “ _ This country needs medicine. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that what this country really needs right now-” _ He smiled at the camera, as if knowing the Doctor was seeing him through that camera. “- _ is a  _ Doctor _.” _

==TTW==

Needless to say, it was a busy day for the Saxon campaign staff. The Time Lord known as Harold Saxon was happily walking through 10 Downing Street, his wife and intern obediently following behind. He was on top of the world. He had felt his guest arrive- he had watched his intern tense at the same time, knowing she had sensed it too and failed to hide a reaction.

The Master was being handed multiple folders. Each one he held, ready for his first day on the job. His wife smiled dutifully at everyone in the office. Norah Rettere- known to the humans as Minister Saxon’s cousin- kept her bright orange curls brushed down, hanging around her shoulders. Even with the bright red hair, her dark pink pantsuit (with a blue bowtie), and engaging amber eyes, nobody paid her any attention. It made it easy to forget that she was Terra Johnson.

At the end of their walk to the Cabinet Room, the three paused. The Master turned back, holding up the red folders.

“Norah. Take these.” the Master handed an intern the folders.

‘Norah’ accepted the many folders without a blink. “Of course, Cousin Harry.”

“I’m so proud of you, Harry.” Lucy Saxon praised. 

The Master gave the human a kiss. “Bless.”

‘Norah’ rolled her eyes, playfully disgusted. 

Another aide walked up to the three, just before the Master could walk into the Cabinet Room. “Sir.” Tish smiles brightly, flustered in front of the new Prime Minister. And technically her new boss. “If you don’t mind me asking. I’m sorry, but it’s all a bit new. What exactly do you want me to do?”

‘Norah’ pointedly pretended not to notice the woman. Which made the Master that much more interested in the newest expendable acquaintance. 

The Master pretended that he hadn’t picked her out specifically. Her connections to Martha had been her whole reason for being hired. Not that Tish needed to know that. “Oh yes, what was it?” 

“Tish. Letitia Jones.” She introduced, still smiling. She was all innocent and fresh faced for the job.

“Tish. Well then,  _ Tish _ , you just stand there and look gorgeous.” The Master tapped Tish once on the chin, giving her a reassuring smile. Tish smiled back, only mildly confused. The Master pushed open the door. “Keep up, Norah.”

“Yes Cousin Harry.” ‘Norah’ answered. She followed it step behind her cousin. She made sure to lock the door behind her, ignoring the faint memories of a panicked pig snorting in her ear. Or of the deadly smile she had given the last time she closed these doors.

“A glorious day.” The Master cheered as he walked into the Cabinet Room. The desk was filled up with various party members he had chosen for the positions. ‘Norah’ dutifully took the empty chair to the right of what would be the Master’s. He held up his hand. She handed the folders over. “Downing Street rebuilt, the Cabinet in session. Let the work of government begin.”

With all fanfare, the Master tossed the papers into the air. The Cabinet watched in silent confusion as the papers rained down. ‘Norah’ grabbed a paper by her feet, beginning to fold it.

“Oh, go on. Crack a smile.” The Master prompted his cabinet staff. “It’s funny, isn’t it? Albert, funny? No? Little bit? Norah, anything?”

She was still folding the paper. To be fair, it was a fun skill to have learned. Besides, the joke hadn’t even been that funny.

Dumfries was the first to speak up. Nobody else had any desire to distract their new boss. Especially not with their positions are precarious as they were. “Very funny, sir. But if we could get down to business, I’m afraid your intern  _ will  _ have to leave.” He explained, with an apologetic glance to the American girl who paid him no mind. “We’ll be discussing sensitive matters of policy, of which we have  _ very  _ little.”

“No, no, no, no. Before we start all that, I just want to say thank you.” The Master took his seat, smiling at them all. Nobody noticed that ‘Norah’ was now sitting up, tense. “Thank you, one and all. You ugly, fat faced bunch of wet, snivelling traitors.”

“Yes, quite, very funny.” Dumfries gave him a humoring smile. “But I think-”

“No. No,  _ that  _ wasn’t funny.” The Master stood back up from his chair, a thoughtful look on his face. “You see, I’m not making myself very clear.” He clicked his fingers. Without hesitation, ‘Norah’ stood up. Her expression being painfully blank. “Funny is like this.”

The two of them smiled. Not happy smiles, like the stock photos you find in the frames when you buy them. These smiles were the ones you did for school picture day and the photographer finally got you into the right pose for the light. Somehow, both were equally disturbing.

“ _ Not funny _ is like this.”

The smiles shifted. The Master put on the most aggressive frown, like someone had tucked their fingers into the corners of his lips to push them down to his chin, and that didn’t please him one bit. ‘Norah’ frowned like she was Princess Mia of Genovia, and she was waving a paper fan over her face. Her frown was less angry than the Master’s, a more put on frown that didn’t quite fit in to her features.

“And right now, I’m not like-” The Master and ‘Norah’ put on the grins again. This time, it was clear that Norah was copying from the Princess of Genovia. Could she be blamed? The faces were iconic. “-I’m like-” ‘Norah’ frowned again, her whole face looking like she would burst into melodramatic tears. “-because you are  _ traitors _ . Yes, you are! You’re not loyal like my cousin. Thank you, Norah, go sit down.”

‘Norah’ obeyed. Her expression blinked back into forced blankness, like she was a robot that could activate expressions. She sat back in her chair, back still tensed straight. Like only she could hear the soundtrack taking on a more sinister tune.

“As soon as you saw the vote swinging my way, you abandoned your parties and you jumped on the Saxon bandwagon.” The Master took his seat once again, reaching beneath the table. ‘Norah’ did as well. “So this is your reward.”

They slipped on a pair of gas masks.

That made everyone sit up in their chairs. “Excuse me, Prime Minister. Do you mind my asking, what is that?” Dumfries asked, panic shaking his words.

“They’re gas masks.” The Master answered, voice muffled through the clear plastic of the mask.

“I beg your pardon?” Dumfries prompted, but his complexion was paling.

The Master waved his hand. ‘Norah’ lowered her mask. “They’re gas masks, sir.” She reported, lowering the mask back.

“Yes, but, er, why are you wearing them?”

The Master rolled his eyes, like Dumfries had said something stupid. “Well, because of the gas.”

Everyone in the room sat up, preparing to run from their seats. “I’m sorry?”

The Master didn’t even bother telling ‘Norah’ to lower her mask. “Because of the gas.”

“What gas?” 

“This gas.” 

On cue, the conference telephone- one that Terra and the Doctor had once used to tell Jackie and Mickey to pour vinegar onto Slitheen- beginning spitting out a most vicious poison directly onto the faces of every Cabinet member. The humans immediately began sputtering and coughing, trying to avoid the toxic fumes. It was too late. They stood no chance. Research had gone into making this gas effective, quick, and most definitely not painless.

Dumfries was suffering the full effects. He clutched his throat, beginning to fall from his chair while glaring pleadingly at the Time Lords. The Master offered no kindness in his gaze. His ‘cousin’ could only give heartbreak. “You’re insane!”

The Master held up a pair of thumbs, laughing as Dumfries dropped dead. “Isn’t it grand, Norah?!” He cackled through his mask.

Terra could only hold up her tiny folded creation. It was a paper Shruiken. The Master eyed it.

“It was supposed to be a bird.” Terra excused, tilting and turning the throwing star in her hand. The gas stopped being pushed out from the telephones, instead small fans were going off to air out the room so they could eventually leave. The corpses would be left here for someone else to clean up, presumably after the Master conquered everything. “I’m quite bad at this.”

“Yeah.” The Master snatched the star from her hands. Terra let it go without protest. “Bowties are more your thing.”

Terra hated how much the praise made her want to preen. Instead she focused on tapping out a rhythm of four onto the table.

The Master copied her. Both of them eyed the corpse of Dumfries.

==TTW==

Last time he was in this flat, the Doctor had told Terra she was getting a dog. He could still perfectly see the joy on her face. The skip in her step as she dragged them into the TARDIS. She had been so worried the entire night prior- meeting Martha’s mother would keep anyone on edge. The Doctor wanted to give her a reason to smile again.

He was walking back into it without that dog, and without Terra. 

_ He needed her here. Needed her to make some joke- needed to joke with her. If she was joking with him then she was by his side and alive and well. She was none of those things if she was anywhere with the Master. _

_ Rassilon how had it gone so _ wrong.

He had no time to worry about those things. His one and only focus was the Master, and what he had done to Terra.

“Home.” Martha spoke with a panicked voice. Never had she felt less at ease being in her own flat.

“What have you got?” The Doctor pushed past Martha, searching the flat for whatever he could use. “Computer, laptop, anything.” He pushed on his glasses, ignoring the voice of Terra in his head laughing at him for not ever needing them. He glanced at Jack, seeing the man pulling out a phone. “Jack, who are you phoning? You can’t tell anyone we’re here.”

Jack gave him a look, still hitting various numbers. “Terra could-”

“He wouldn’t risk it.” The Doctor dismissed. The Master wouldn’t have let Terra keep any line of communication. While it was possible Terra knew for that and accounted for it, there was no telling how long they had been here. Long enough for the Master to run for minister, so definitely long enough to prove Terra had no access to a phone. “Jack.” He prompted again.

“You’re not my boss.” Jack countered with a protective glare.

“I am today.” The Doctor argued,

“Just some friends of mine, but there’s no reply.” Jack excused. He seemed to be typing in another number, then thought better of it. 

Good. At least he decided to listen today.

Martha handed the Doctor her laptop. “Here you go. Any good?”

_ No but it’ll do in a pinch. _

Jack yanked the laptop from the Doctor’s hands. “I can show you the Saxon websites. He’s been around for ages.” Jack took the seat at Martha’s desk, opening the laptop and the internet.

“That’s so weird though. It’s the day after the election.” Martha eyed the flat through new eyes. “That’s only four days after I met you.”

“We went flying all around the universe while he was here with Terra all the time.” The Doctor countered her bittersweet memories.

Martha stood, hands on her hips as if copying one of Terra’s more commanding moods. “You going to tell us who he is?”

“He’s a Time Lord.” The Doctor explained.

“What about the rest of it? I mean, who’d call himself  _ the Master _ ?” Martha asked. “Terra proved that you lot  _ can _ pick normal names-”

“That’s all you need to know.” The Doctor snapped at her. Martha stared at him for his tone. The Doctor didn’t care- 

_ ‘Don’t mind him. He’s always rude.’ _

_ ‘You are too!’ _

_ ‘You’re just jealous I’m ginger.’ _

The Doctor pushed the memories aside for now. He turned to Jack. “Come on, show me Harold Saxon.”

He heard Martha turn on her answering machine. He tried not to pay it any mind. It sounded like her sister, calling to tell Martha about a new job. He couldn’t care less. There was a bigger issue. None of the pictures he could see on the laptop had any sign of-

“Oh, like it matters.” Martha pushed the button to delete it.

There was another message. Martha almost hit to delete it when the Doctor heard her voice.

_ “Martha WAIT-” _

The Doctor rushed to keep Martha from hitting that button. The voice registered in her mind, making her freeze in shock.

_ “-wait, please! Please don’t- there’s no time for another call. I have no time because- because...oh my head... _ whether it’s the weather or the letters by my bed, sometimes death seems better than the migraine in my head-”

Jack came up behind them both, eyeing the phone with reverence. “Terra. It’s her. She’s alive.”

_ ‘Or she was when she made this message.’ _ The Doctor told himself.

_ “No, no- I can’t get stuck again...there’s no time. I tried to stop it...but there wasn’t...I don’t think I did it right. I’m sorry- I tried. I tried keeping them...they’re just so  _ stubborn. _ Get that from you, I guess... _ ”

“Terra.” The Doctor breathed, feeling forlorn at hearing her so lost.

_ “Doc Brown can help them...better than I ever did. I know you can. No matter how long it takes-” _ There was a loud thud. The Doctor tensed, waiting oh so painfully that each twin beat of his hearts thundered in his head _.  _ “Am I the only one I know waging my wars behind my face and above my throat...shadows will scream that I’m alone but I know, we’ve made it this far, kid.” Terra continued to sing, making sounds for the beat that the song had.

The message ended with the Master’s laughter coming from the speakers. 

The Doctor could only stare at the voicemail machine in cold contempt.

_ Because she had sounded so afraid. _

_ And it had been a long time since the Doctor heard fear like that coming from his friend. _

“Jack.” The Doctor prompted, a warning clear in his voice. “What have you got?”

Jack pressed a button on the laptop. He moved it so the Doctor could see without looking over Jack’s shoulder. A montage of videos began to play. Every single one of someone endorsing voting for Saxon as Prime Minister. Over and over again: Vote Saxon. The Doctor could remember seeing posters for it, ever since first bringing Martha onto the TARDIS.

“Former Minister of Defence. First came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve.” Jack reported. “Nice work, by the way. I know Terra did most of the work like always.”

The Doctor glared at him. “Oh, thanks.”

He wasn’t wrong. Terra had been picking up the Doctor’s slack, since the loss of Rose was still so fresh. And she had been scared then too...Donna helped Terra more than the Doctor had done.

“But he goes back years. He’s famous. Everyone knows his story.” Martha added in, stepping up to the laptop to point at the various pictures on screen. “Look. Cambridge University, Rugby blue. Won the Athletics thing. Wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, family, everything. He’s got a whole  _ life _ .”

_ ‘And Terra isn’t anywhere in it.’ _ Was the statement none of them wanted to say.

==TTW==

While the Doctor and companions were watching the Best Of’s: Harry Saxon, across town a woman was trying to work for the sake of planet earth.

No not Terra Johnson, the Time Lady unhappily walking in the Master’s every step like an obedient Dementor for Dolores Umbridge. No, this woman had worked for Torchwood. Vivien Rook, a proud employee of Torchwood Two.

Vivien had noticed some discrepancies from the soon to be PM. Things that didn’t fit quite right with the image he was trying to maintain. Worse yet, Vivien noticed exactly how he was doing it. All it would take was just a little conversation with the Master’s so called weakest link.

Which for the Master was a problem. He had kept such a close watch on Terra, her every move, her every encounter, hell even every tilt of her head. He had kept less watch over his wife.

The Master had grabbed Terra by the arm. The Time Lady gave no protests as she was dragged alongside him through the back halls of 10 Downing Street. She knew where they were going. 

_ And I know that I can fight, or I can let the lion win _

_ I begin to assemble what weapons I can find _

_ ‘Cause sometimes to stay alive you gotta kill your mind _

“Bloody hell, would you turn off Radio Terra?” The Master ordered.

Terra lowered her voice to a hum.

Together, they snuck into the tiny little room where Vivien Rook was speaking with one Lucy Saxon. Even though they were in plain view of the Torchwood agent she didn’t notice them.

“He was so good to my father...” Lucy explained, a look on her face like the real her was trying to break through. Her mind was screaming at her to get a clue- to take this chance and run. “And he said...”

The Master held tighter to Terra’s arm. Ah, he must have sensed that Terra felt a single speck of hope.

“What? Just tell me, sweetheart.” Vivien pleaded.

“The thing is-” Lucy stopped. Her tone shifted, her posture shifted only slightly. The Master was grinning proudly. Terra slunked back on the door. “I made my choice.”

“I’m sorry?”

“For better or for worse.” Lucy repeated. “Isn’t that right, Harry?”

“My faithful companion.” The Master praised.

Then, Vivien could finally see them. She blanched at first. “Mister Saxon, and...and this is- this must be your cousin.” 

Terra could only hope her apology was expressed in her eyes. She had been trying to get those back, you see.

Vivien started gathering her papers together, pages and pages describing the flaws behind Harry Saxon and Norah Rettere. “Prime Minister, I was just having a little joke with poor little Lucy. I didn’t mean-”

“Oh, but you’re absolutely right.” The Master praised her. “Harold Saxon and Norah Rettere don’t exist.”

Vivien shed off the reporter persona. Oh, Terra wished she could be so lucky. “Then tell me. Who are you?”

“I am the Master, she’s Terra Johnson, and these are our friends.” The Master held up his arms.

Terra’s hearts raced in panic when four Toclafane appeared. She fought back the instinct to run, back the urge to grab a wrench and get to work. There were bigger issues at hand. She had to stay present. She had to stay focused-

“I’m sorry.” She heard herself say. And she felt it, felt it with every bone in her body.

“Can’t you hear it, Missus Rook?” The Master asked.

Vivien eyed the Toclafane in horror. “What do you mean?”

“The drumbeat.” He explained. “The drums coming closer and closer.”

At an unspoken cue, spikes shot out from the shells of the Toclafane. The lower ones began to rotate, fast. The ones in the middle spun in place. 

_ “The lady doesn’t like us.” _

_ “Silly lady.” _

Vivien tried backing away. It was no use. Terra had seen to it that they were effective. The Master wouldn’t accept anything less. “No.”

_ “Dead lady.” _

And the knives met flesh. So Vivien screamed, her cream colored clothes stained with red.

The Master, Terra, and Lucy rushed out of the room. The Master closed the door behind them, cutting off the screams. It seemed to intrigue him that the sound was cut off so cleanly, so he let the door peak open just enough to hear the screams again. Terra flinched, her hands clenching by her sides. The Master tried it again- just to marvel at how the screams cut off so perfectly. Terra took a harsh breath to keep herself from snapping at him.

The third time was strictly unnecessary.

“Oh, but she knew.” Lucy bemoaned, brushing her fingers on her face to wipe away panicked tears. “Harry, she knew everything. You promised. You said Archangel was one hundred percent.”

“Ninety nine, ninety eight?” The Master turned around to glare at Terra. “Right?”

Terra only stared at him, eyes full of lies unspoken. So maybe the wrong time to get her expressions back on par...

“Norah.” The Master pressed. “Don’t lie to me. We had a discussion about that, I’m sure of it.”

“I tried to make her stop looking.” Terra admitted. “I tried, really I did. I knew...I knew you’d kill her if she found out.”

The Master nodded. “And yet, here we are.”

“She had training.” Terra excused. “Special training to prevent the very thing that Archangel  _ does _ . I can’t have fixed that loophole without rewriting Archangel, or the less complex rewriting of the entire human  _ psyche.” _

The Master hummed. “Fair. I had expected someone of  _ yours  _ to try. Pity.”

Yes. A real pity that none of Terra’s friends could be murdered by the Master. That was a downright shame, a travesty. Terra would have to write an apology card for the Time Lord, probably from the psychopath-pity-party section.

“But if she’s asking questions, then who else?” Lucy asked, her bottom lip quivering. “How much time have we got?”

The Master poured for her. He held out his arms. Lucy welcomes the embrace, letting the Master hold her tight in a comforting hug. Terra let herself be genuinely disgusted this time. “Tomorrow morning. I promise. That’s when everything ends.” Lucy relaxed at the promise.

Terra bemoaned the fate of Earth. 

==TTW==

Jack had made everyone cups of tea. If he had accidentally brought out a fourth ug then put it back, nobody said anything. He had been trying to ignore Terra’s message, ignore the messages she had apparently been giving him for months through her past self. All this time, Terra had been apologizing for not being able to stop something big- something she herself compared to an avalanche.

He had thought it was about him being unable to die, or even Jack being thrown back in time. There was no way he could’ve known it was about  _ this. _ But he saw no need to tell the Doctor and Martha about that. It meant telling them about Leah- and that wasn’t an option.

“But he’s got the TARDIS.” Jack suggested. “Maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for decades.”

“No.” The Doctor answered, without even pausing to think.

“Why not? Worked for me.” Jack reminded him. He handed the Doctor a mug of tea.

The Doctor set it to the side, not drinking it. “When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now.”

“Yeah, but a little leeway?” Jack asked. He wanted to know how long Terra had been here alone.

“Well, eighteen months, tops.” The Doctor suggested. “The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a  _ massive  _ scale.”

“I was going to vote for him.” Martha admitted.

The Doctor eyed her, sipping at his tea. “Really?”

“Well, it was before I even met you and her. And I liked him.” Martha explained, her voice beginning to become less focused.

“Me too.” Jack added, though he sounded confused over concern.

“Why do you say that?” The Doctor prompted, eyeing both companions carefully. Jack opened his mouth, then closed it when he couldn’t find the answer. “What was his policy? What did he stand for?”

“I don’t know. He always sounded good.” Martha explained. The Doctor saw her fingers beginning to tap a rhythm onto her bedpost. “Like you could trust him. Just nice. He spoke about.” She kept tapping the beat of four. “I can’t really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice.”

“What’s that?” The Doctor prompted, pointing at Martha’s hand.

The question shocked Martha out of her trance. “What?”

“That.” The Doctor pointed to her hands again. “That tapping, that rhythm. What are you doing?”

Martha stared at her own hands, confused that they had performed the action. “I don’t know. It’s nothing. It’s just, I don’t know.”

The computer suddenly blared out an alarm. The Doctor turned to look at it. There was an alert, telling them to turn on the news.

The Doctor rushed to the television, switching it on. “Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom.”

The Master was on the screen. The Doctor glared at him.

_ “Britain, Britain, Britain. What extraordinary times we’ve had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You’ve seen it happen. Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill. Time and time again, and the government told you nothing. Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose-” _

==TTW==

Lucy stood by the camera, watching her husband in pride.

Terra stood by Tish Jones. She was ignoring the questioning looks that Tish was giving the Time Lords and the wife.

“-here today is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted.” The Master explained in a serious voice.

==TTW==

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the TV.

_ “A message for humanity, from beyond the stars.” _

The image shifted from the Master to a floating circular device. It didn’t resemble any alien that the Doctor had ever seen.

_ “People of the Earth-” _

==TTW==

Terra wasn’t showing her panic. The voices of the Toclafane had never brought her peace. They had always wanted to talk to her, over and over forever and ever. Chatty little insane humans that just needed to give her space. They never listened to her. They only listened to one Time Lord.

_ “-we come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship. _

“Ooo, sweet.” The Master cooed. Lucy laughed with him. Terra swallowed down the urge to vomit. “And this species has identified itself.”

==TTW==

_ “They are called the Toclafane.” _

“What?” The Doctor yelped in disbelief.

_ “And tomorrow morning, they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species-” _

==TTW==

“-will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child.” The Master listed. Terra began fiddling with the edge of her sleeve. “Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don’t know, every medical student?”

==TTW==

The Doctor and Jack turned to a shocked Martha. He leapt up, twirling the TV around to reveal a bomb attached to the back.

“Out!”

The three of them ran out of the flat. The Doctor was able to grab the laptop and his coat before running off. The flat exploded, flames spitting out from the shattered windows.

“All right?” The Doctor asked.

Jack nodded. “Fine, yeah, fine.”

“Martha?” The Doctor asked. She was pulling out her phone. “What are you doing?”

“He knows about me. What about my family?” Martha questioned, dialing the number.

“Don’t tell them anything.” The Doctor warned.

“I’ll do what I like!” Martha snapped at him. Jack glanced at the Doctor, seeing another reason why Terra had invited Martha along. “Mum? Oh my God. You’re there.”

Martha had left the phone loud enough that the Doctor could hear the other side. It wasn’t intentional- it was just how the Doctor was.  _ “Of course I’m here, sweetheart. You all right?” _ Her mother replied.

Martha breathed out a sigh of relief at hearing her mum’s voice. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Mum, Has there been anyone asking about me?”

_ “Martha, I think perhaps you should come round.” _ Francine requested.

“I can’t. Not now.” Martha replied.

_ “No, but it’s your father. We’ve been talking and we thought we might give it another go.”  _ Francine explained.

“Don’t be so daft. Since when?” Martha scoffed.

_ “Just come around. Come to the house. We can celebrate.” _ Francine explained.

“You said you’d never get back with him in a million years.” Martha reminded her.

_ “Ask him yourself.” _ Francine offered.

_ “Martha, it’s me...Francine?” _ Clive 

Martha could hear it. She heard...was her mum  _ singing? _

_ “Alouette, gentille alouette. Alouette je te plumerai.” _

“Dad, is mum  _ singing _ ?” Martha asked.

The Doctor stormed over. He grabbed Martha’s phone, turning on the speaker. Jack came over. All of them could hear the singing.

_ “I ain’t ever heard that. Francine what’s wrong?” _ Clive asked.

_ “Alouette, gentille alouette. Alouette je te plumerai.” _ Francine continued to sing.

“Dad? Just say yes or no. Is there someone else there?” Martha asked, eyeing the Doctor in barely held back rage and concern.

Clive paused for just a beat. _ “Yes! Just run!” _

_ “-louette je te plum-”  _ Francine yelped as she stopped singing. _ “Clive!” _

_ “Listen to me! Just run! I don’t know who they are!” _ Clive yelled.

_ “We’re trying to help her! Martha, don’t listen to him!”  _ Francine yelled.

Martha snatched the phone back. “Dad? What’s going on? Dad?!”

_ “We’ve got to get Martha away from them!” _

Martha clapped the phone shut, running for her car. “We’ve got to help them.”

“That’s exactly what they want. It’s a trap!” The Doctor warned.

“I don’t care.” Martha slammed her door shut.

The Doctor glanced at Jack, silently asking for someone to offer an argument. Like Terra would right about now. Jack only climbed into the back seat.

==TTW==

Martha drove like a madwoman to her mum’s house. The Doctor was doing shouting directions as she did, trying to keep them from dying. It wouldn’t help anything if they died in a car accident. The Master would probably never let the Doctor live it down.

As if her driving wasn’t reckless enough, Martha pulled out her phone. “Come on, Tish. Pick up.”

Her sister answered before long.  _ “Martha, I can’t talk right now. We just made first contact. Did you see?”  _ Her joy was cut off by confused yelling.  _ “What are you doing? Get off! Norah, tell them!” _

“What’s happening? Tish!” Martha cried out.

_ “I’m sorry, Martha.” _ Terra’s voice came in from the phone. Martha was shocked. _ “I told you I tried.” _

“Terra! What are you-” Terra hung up the phone before the Doctor could reach the phone. Martha seethed. “It’s your fault. It’s  _ all your fault!” _

The Doctor said nothing. He glared at the phone, a worrying feeling digging into his gut. 

They pulled up to the Jones house. A black truck was in the front, and men in suits were throwing Martha’s enraged parents into the back. 

“Martha, get out of here! Get out!” Francine yelled.

Martha didn’t move.

A squad of soldiers in tactical gear took position. All of them blocking the truck from Martha’s car.

“Martha, reverse.” The Doctor ordered.

The soldiers raised their guns.

“Get out, now!” The Doctor yelled.

Martha pushed the car into reverse. The timing was good, as that was when soldiers started shooting at the back of Martha’s car.

“Move it!” Jack ordered.

The car sped into gear. The rear window shattered. 

“The only place we can go was planet Earth. Great!” Martha snarked.

“Careful!” The Doctor warned as Martha took another harsh turn.

“Martha, listen to me.” Jack sat up from his seat. Somebody had to act as the Terra of the group. “Do as I say. We’ve got to ditch this car. Pull over. Right now!”

Martha did so, silent in her rage.

==TTW==

They parked the car beneath a tunnel. The Doctor and Jack climbed out, walking up the tunnel to find someplace else to hide.

“Martha, come on!” The Doctor instructed when he noticed she had lagged behind. She was on the phone, calling her brother.

“Doctor.” Jack began. The Doctor did his best to ignore him. “That song Francine was singing. Wasn’t that-”

“She wasn’t at that house.” The Doctor countered. “We still don’t know where she is.”

“Terra picked up Tish’s phone.” Jack pointed out. “Where does she work?”

The Doctor thought about it. Tish had worked for Lazarus up until his death. However that voicemail earlier said Tish was working somewhere else. Wherever that was, it was where Terra was. And the Master would never let Terra get too far.

“Terra must be in Downing Street, with him.” The Doctor reasoned.

Jack made a face, not liking that Terra was so close to the Master. If she had been so panicked during their trip to Utopia, then whatever the Master was doing couldn’t be good.

“You said he had  _ family. _ ” The Doctor recalled.

Jack’s heart thumped painfully. “You think he would do that?”

“She’s the closest to the real thing.” The Doctor stated. “He can hide her away in the name of family privacy, ask people to respect their wishes. And you all did it.”

It made Jack sick. All the times he had brushed off Saxon’s cousin, ignored the rumors all because of the Master. She had been suffering and the world turned a blind eye to her.

_ For eighteen months. _

_ She was all alone for eighteen months. _

“Let them go, Saxon.” Martha yelled suddenly. The Doctor turned over to her, marching to her side. “Do you hear me! Let them go!”

He snatched the phone away, holding it to his ear. Jack could calm down Martha. There wasn’t time for the Doctor to do it.

“I’m here.”

==TTW==

In the conference room of 10 Downing Street, two Time Lords sat in the room. No humans around this time, or animals for Terra to hug.

At the Doctor’s voice over the conference phone, Terra let herself feel a moment of relief. She hadn’t heard that voice in so long...18 long months. It occurred to her that she had now known the Master as long as she had traveled with the Doctor. What a sad and funny coincidence.

But she wanted to travel with him again.

Desperately.

He was here now. Terra was going to be okay, someday. 

The Master sat down at the table, beaming. He held up a finger over his lips to Terra. She sat back in her seat, quiet as a church mouse. There weren’t many other ways for her to hear the Doctor’s voice. She would listen to the Master, just for this short while. She was already in enough trouble, for answering Tish’s phone and for making Francine sing. It had been an accident...kinda.

“Doctor.” The Master greeted him, ecstatic for reuniting with the Doctor.

==TTW==

The Doctor was less overjoyed in his reply. “Master.”

==TTW==

The Master smiled, oh so wide. “I like it when you use my name.”

Terra mimed gagging.

==TTW==

“You chose it. Psychiatrist’s field day.” The Doctor replied, terse.

_ I hope Terra hasn’t stopped taunting you for it. _

==TTW==

“As you chose yours.” The Master moved to sit beside Terra. She stayed quiet, eyeing each Time Lord as they spoke like this was the most interesting match of ping-pong. “The man who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?” He asked Terra.

She shook her head, keeping quiet.

The Master smiled in praise.

==TTW==

This was a chance. He could bring up Terra. He could discuss her name choice. Was she in the room? Could she hear what they were saying, did she want to share her own reasoning for this choice?

He couldn’t risk it. If the Doctor said the wrong thing, the Master could end the call and the Doctor would be no closer to helping Terra. 

“So, Prime Minister, then.” The Doctor noted.

_ “I know.” _

==TTW==

“It’s good, isn’t it?” The Master said with pride. Go big or go home, after all.

==TTW==

“Who are those creatures?” The Doctor asked. He wanted to ask for Terra. He wanted to demand answers, to demand to speak to her and just to hear her again. She sounded so afraid in that voicemail, the Doctor had to know if she was okay. “Because there’s no such thing as the Toclafane. It’s just a made up name, like the Bogeyman.”

“ _ Do you remember-” _

==TTW==

The Master had turned to Terra. She was meeting his gaze.

“-all those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids-” 

==TTW==

_ “-back home. Where is it, Doctor?”  _ The Master asked. _ “Our mutual friend has been silent on the subject.” _

“Gone.” The Doctor answered.

==TTW==

“How can Gallifrey be  _ gone _ ?” The Master asked, disbelieving. He pushed himself to his feet, fuming.

Terra held to the armrests on her chair.

_ “It burnt.” _

“And the Time Lords?” The Master asked.

==TTW==

“Dead.” The Doctor answered, not willing-not  _ ready _ \- to give more than that. “And the Daleks, more or less. What happened to you?”

==TTW==

“Oh, Doctor, you little liar.” The Master asked, looking up at Terra.

The ginger girl tilted her head to the side. Eyelids sluggishly closed, opening even slower. She had been so much slower lately, subdued from her old brightness. 

“You’ve had Terra.” He smirked at Terra. The Time Lady gave no reaction. “How did she survive the Time War?”

==TTW==

The Doctor reminded himself to stay calm. That the Master wouldn’t lose so valuable a hostage- not when there was a better way to hurt the Doctor.

“She found me on Earth, really.” The Doctor answered easily. “She’s never been to Gallifrey.”

==TTW==

The Master glared. He wondered how they found each other already. “She had to have been.”

==TTW==

_ Well I gave it a shot. _

“She was banished.”

==TTW==

“Banished? What a bad girl you are.” The Master turned to her again.

Terra tilted her head the other way.

==TTW==

“She’s in the room with you?” The Doctor couldn’t stop himself from asking. He held his breath, waiting for any proof of life from her. “Let me speak with her. I’m asking you, please, let me talk to her!”

==TTW==

“Doctor, this is a private talk. No room for her here.” The Master explained, pouting in disappointment at the Doctor.

In truth, he didn’t want to risk whatever would come out of her mouth. She had already caused a fuss with the Jones family. No need to risk anything else.

“The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I’d be the perfect warrior for a-”

==TTW==

The Doctor fought to make a noise of frustration.

_ “-Time War. I was there when-” _

==TTW==

“-the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far.” The Master glanced down at the watch on his wrist. “Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared.”

==TTW==

“I know.” The Doctor replied. He remembered being human, remembered how awful and terrible and wonderful it had been. He remembered knowing something terrible was on the other side, if he ever got caught.

Through John’s cowardice, Caroline had died and took Terra down with her. 

  
  


==TTW==

The Master in his new regeneration must have taken up Terra’s desire to move on past discomforting topics. “ _ All _ of them? But not you or her, which must mean-”

==TTW==

“I was the only one who could end it.” The Doctor insisted, wanting any and all blame taken off Terra. “And I tried. I did. I tried everything.”

==TTW==

“What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilizations  _ burning _ .” The Master laughed. “Oh, tell me, how did that  _ feel _ ?”

Terra shuddered. Her hands tightening on the arm rests again.

==TTW==

“Stop it!” The Doctor scolded.

_ “Is that really what happened with Terra? You knew you were burning us, so you spared one life? An entire planet’s fate in your hands. You must have been like  _ God _.” _

“It has been just me and Terra ever since.” The Doctor argued, trying to push past the coming wave of grief from the idea that it had been just himself and Terra for so long. Worse yet, that their only other surviving species member was so bent on harming Earth, “But not anymore. Don’t you see? All we’ve got is each other.”

==TTW==

“Are you asking me on a date?” The Master asked. “Because I’ve been tied up with our planet’s new infamous daughter. Did you know she’s the one that tricked the Jones family into siding against their daughter? All it took was a few pretty words from Terra, and they were all so eager to please.”

Terra shook her head, silently humming about migraines.

==TTW==

“Stop this, Master, you can stop this.” The Doctor warned. 

_ “I have my whole success to thank for Our Lady Terra.” _ The Master laughed.  _ “If not for her, I might not have been able to do all I did.” _

“We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that’s what you want, but  _ not on Earth.” _ The Doctor insisted.

==TTW==

The Master smiled over at Terra, watching in amusement as the Time Lady kept rocking in her seat. 

“Too late.”

==TTW==

The Doctor tensed. He started looking around the tiny backroad they were hiding in. “Why do you say that?”

==TTW==

“Can you hear it?” The Master asked. He started walking around the table, tapping the beat on the glass surface as he did. Terra copied from her chair. “The drumming. I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The  _ constant  _ drumming.”

_ “We could help you.  _ Please _ , let us help.” _

“It’s everywhere. Listen, listen, listen.” The Master insisted. “Here come the drums. Here come the drums.”

Terra started humming again. Quietly, singing so low that the Master could barely even hear.  _ “Here come the drums, dodododo. Here come the drums...” _

==TTW==

The Doctor spotted it. A man across from him, leaning on the wall, tapping out the beat of four on his legs. The exact same rhythm that Martha had done. “What have you done? Tell me how you’ve done this. What have you done to Terra? What are those creatures? Tell me!”

==TTW==

“Ooo look, you’re on TV!” The Master cheered. He had set up a tiny TV into the conference room, keeping looped into the news while following up with the Joneses.

==TTW==

“Stop it. Answer me.” The Doctor demanded, his voice a frustrated hiss.

==TTW==

“No, really. You’re on telly. See, Terra, look.” The Master tilted the TV so it was better facing Terra. She looked up, expression again painfully blank. “Him and his little band, which-”

==TTW==

_ “-by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there they are.” _

The Doctor saw the store beside the man. TV windows were showing his face, along with Jack’s and Martha’s. 

==TTW==

“They’re public enemies number one, two, and three.” The Master explained to the blank faced Terra. “Oh, and Doctor, tell Handsome Jack, that I sent his little gang-”

==TTW==

_ “-off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won’t be getting any help from them.”  _

The Doctor turned to Jack. The man was standing with Martha, both of them able to see the newscast.

==TTW==

The Master explained, pointing at the live footage of the Doctor standing in front of a TV. “Now, go on, off you go. Why not start by turning to the right?”

==TTW==

The Doctor did so. He spotted a security camera aimed directly at him. “He can see us.” The Doctor warned.

A quick use of the sonic sent sparks from the camera.

==TTW==

“Oh, you public menace!” The Master scolded.

Terra smiled, fond. Her shoulders were shaking with silent giggles.

“Don’t you encourage him.” He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “Better start running. Go on, run.” The Master taunted.

==TTW==

“He’s got control of everything.” The Doctor revealed.

“What do we do?” Martha asked.

“We’ve got nowhere to go.” Jack reminded them.

“Doctor, what do we do?” Martha insisted.

_ “Run, Doctor. Run for your life!” _

“We run.” The Doctor stated.

So they did. All three of them started running.

When the Doctor ended the call, he heard the Master’s laugh and his final taunt  _ “I said, run!” _

==TTW==

Terra never much enjoyed the news. Before all of this, she only watched the bare minimum to know what was going on in the world. She was already so wrapped up in the mini-world of every friend group in every reality she visited. What, now she needed to know the proper news too? A Reality Jumper can only do so much.

She was relieved when- while the Master was channel surfing- he landed on Teletubbies and stayed there.

“Have you seen these things? This planet’s amazing.” The Master praised. “Television in their stomach. Now that is evolution.”

“Wait until you see their vacuum cleaner.” Terra suggested, sounded tired. Like it had been a long day at work. “It has eyeballs.” 

The Master laughed in delight.

A Toclafane flashed in. Terra flinched back at the sight.

“Is the machine ready?” The Toclafane asked.

The Master rolled his eyes at the impatience of them. “Tomorrow morning. It reaches critical at eight oh two precisely.”

“We have to escape, because it’s coming, sir. The darkness, the never-ending darkness.” The Toclafane pleaded. The Master rubbed his forehead. Terra was shivering, curling her arms around her chest to keep back the cold feeling running through her. “The terrible, terrible cold. We have to run and run and run!”

“Eight o’clock tomorrow morning. Tell your people the world is waiting.” The Master instructed. The Toclafane phased out. He huffed, pushing up out of his seat. “You need to calm down, Terra. You’re making the children fuss.”

Terra glared at his back. “They’re about to go onstage for the entire world. It’s pre show jitters. Anyone would be anxious.”

The Master walked over to a nearby window. Rain was coming down. A warning to the world, a tease of the bigger storm yet to come? Maybe it was normal London weather, and there wasn’t anything special about it. Or maybe...maybe the world was feeling tired, so it just wanted to let it out for just this little while.

“You behaved well on the phone.” The Master commented. Terra tried to focus on the Teletubbies. Lala was getting into some shit- silly Lala. “But that hasn’t made me forget Mrs Jones’ little performance.”

Terra started humming about umbrellas.

“Anything you want to say?” The Master prompted. “Anything at all? Or did you just miss your room that much?”

Terra’s song cut off. She hugged herself, trying to shake off the dread and inescapable coldness settling in her gut. 

“Well?” The Master prompted again.

Terra shook her head. “I just-”

The Master turned. He walked to the table again, walking until he was looming behind Terra.

“...I wanted him to hurt.” Terra revealed, swallowing through a dry mouth. “He...he hadn’t come for me. And it had been so long...I wanted him to know I was scared and...and that it was his fault.”

He held the back of her chair. Terra stayed silent, still hugging herself.

“What a new level of cruelty. I must be a good influence on you.” The Master praised himself. 

Terra couldn’t deny it.

“Still. We can’t risk it. Not with so much on the line.” The Master explained.

Terra let out a shuddering exhale.

“One more night in your room should fix your acting out.” The Master explained.

_ Alouette, gentille alouette _

_ Alouette je te plumerai _

==TTW==

Jack closed his phone. He let out a low sigh as he walked back into the Doctor’s field of sight.

The Doctor watched Jack walk back in. He was on the laptop, keeping track of the news. Jack brushed his hand in his hair, trying not to seem phased.

“Any luck?”

Jack hesitated. He shook his head. “No one on the team answered.” He explained. “I hoped even one of them...but they all went.”

The Doctor could understand that intent.

It wasn’t too long after the rain stopped that Martha returned. She had with her a damp bag of takeaway. Jack was the first to greet her on her return. “How was it?”

“I don’t think anyone saw me.” Martha answered. She held up the bag for Jack to see. “Anything new?”

Jack held up his Vortex manipulator. “I’ve got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon’s doing.”

“Yeah, I meant about my  _ family _ .” Martha asked, snippy. Jack just accepted his food without further comment.

“It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning.” The Doctor assured her, not looking up from the laptop. “Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo.”

“He’s not as daft as he looks.” Martha smiled in praise for her brother. Her smile dropped, she stood up straight as she thought about what she’d just said. “I’m talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?”

Jack took a seat across from the Doctor. “Nice chips.”

“Actually, they’re not bad.” The Doctor agreed. 

Martha eyed the both of them. She wondered how they were both so calm in all of this. Their friend was missing, trapped with Saxon and had been for ages. Her own family was gone now, all Martha could feel was panic. All this time with the Doctor and Terra hadn’t ever prepared her for something like this.

She had watched the Doctor when Terra had gone missing, rare as those times were. The Doctor raged and panicked faster than anything. Yet now he was calm, happily talking about chips. He should be furious! He should be yelling and screaming and storming off into Saxon’s place to get Terra back. And Jack! Jack, who was supposed to have been Terra’s friend, more so than the Doctor had ever been. Why wasn’t Jack as furious? Why weren’t they just as angry as her? Martha couldn’t understand it.

The answer was sitting in the Doctor’s head. If Martha asked, he would deny it. The Doctor couldn’t get angry about this. Not that he wasn’t already, but this anger was different. This was the kind of anger that simmered, that lied in wait beneath the surface. This quiet sort of anger that had been with him since his regeneration. If he gave into this anger now, if he let out the rage that Martha was silently asking for, the Doctor doubted he would be able to put it away.

Because Terra had sounded afraid.

The Doctor could remember the last time she had sounded that scared. There had been a note in her hand, and nonchalance in her posture. She was so scared telling the Doctor why she ran, and what she was running from. The Doctor had promised that she would never feel that fear again. She didn’t remember it. She didn’t remember anything to do with Logan anymore- the Doctor was certain of it. 

Terra wouldn’t forgive herself either if the Doctor did something horrible in his fit of rage. It wouldn’t be her fault, but it would be in her name and that would be enough.

But Martha didn’t ask. So the Doctor didn’t answer.

Still, some questions had to be asked. Martha just wouldn’t be the one to do it. Martha nodded her head at Jack, silently ordering him to do it.

“So, Doctor, who is he?” Jack asked the Doctor. “How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?”

Martha jumped in. Jack had gotten the ball rolling to the proper questions. “And what is he to you? Like a colleague or-” 

A friend, at first.” The Doctor popped another chip into her mouth.

“I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something.” Martha admitted.

The Doctor snapped his head over to her. Both humans watched silently in hated breath. “You’ve been watching too much TV.”

That made the humans laugh, tension coming out from their shoulders.

“But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect.” Jack noted.

“Well, perfect to  _ look at _ , maybe. And it was. It was beautiful.” The Doctor leaned back in his seat, looking up but anyone could tell his eyes weren’t on Earth anymore. “They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that’s when it all began. When he was a child. That’s when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It’s a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad. Brr. I don’t know.”

“What about you?” Martha asked. “Or Terra?”

“Oh, the one that ran away, I never stopped.” The Doctor answered. His look was a lot less fond at the second part. “Terra...she doesn’t remember home...but the Schism isn’t something you forget. I think Terra looked inside and saw...everything. Some rare few looked, and they saw so much...She’s been doing things- incredible things, yes, but impossible. Time Lords aren’t meant to have the power to alter reality with words. There’s no book on quantum mechanics in the TARDIS. She already knew how to do that.”

“You think she can do that because of what she saw?” Jack asked.

The Doctor actually had no idea. He was only going off what he suspected. “Our people were too scared to kill her. Because I have seen the other side of her anger.”

“I hate to be the one to ask.” Jack admitted. “If Time Lords aren’t supposed to have that power, why didn’t they just kill her?”

“You can’t just kill someone with abilities like this.” The Doctor replied, with a careful shake of his head. “They don’t play by the rules of the universe. If they tried, it wouldn’t have worked.”

“So it’s like me?”

“No. Nothing’s like you, Jack.” The Doctor countered. “The Time Lords couldn’t kill Terra, but she couldn’t stay on Gallifrey anymore. She was banished here. They thought if they couldn’t kill her...”

“They’d make her do it for them.” Jack finished the thought.

“No. How could anyone do something that awful?” Martha asked. “To anyone, let alone a little girl?”

The Doctor had no answers. None that Martha would like, at least. “The song your mother was singing, do you know it?”

Martha frowned at the mention of her family. “No. She doesn’t sing that often, least not that I’ve heard.”

“Terra would sing that song whenever she was afraid.” The Doctor explained. Martha’s eyes widened. “She spoke with the Jones family, her latest self, that night with Lazarus. Whatever Terra said, she did something to make your mother sing that one song.”

“Why? Why do that to my mum?” Martha asked.

“On your answering machine, she said she tried to stop them. She didn’t mean the Master, she meant your parents.” The Doctor explained. “She tried to keep them from the Master, and she couldn’t do it. So she wanted to tell you sorry.”

Martha let out a breath, clenching her hands on her knees. 

Jack’s manipulator beeped. He held it up. “Encrypted channel with files attached. Don’t recognize it.” Jack explained.

“Patch it through to the laptop.” The Doctor instructed.

Jack winced. “Since we’re telling stories, there’s something I haven’t told  _ you _ .” He pressed some buttons on his manipulator. One quick chord to connect the two had the message displayed on the screen.

Right alongside the Torchwood logo.

“You work for Torchwood.” The Doctor stated, staring at Jack like he was a stranger. Even the explanation for his little gang came together now, as they must be other employees of  _ Torchwood. _

“I swear to you, it’s different.” Jack promised. “It’s changed. There’s only half a dozen of us now.”

“Everything Torchwood did, and you’re part of it?” The Doctor snapped, still furious that anyone of his would join that place. Well Jack had always been more Terra’s than the Doctor, but he still couldn’t see it.

“The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf.” Jack explained. “I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it in Terra’s honor. The way she would have wanted it done.”

“You don’t know that.” The Doctor countered, expression curled back in disgust.

Jack met that disgusted look. “I told her on Utopia. She was proud.” It was only a small lie. She had never wanted him to go to Torchwood, but that was to spare him the pain of it. But never did Terra say she wasn’t proud of the man he became.

The Doctor pressed the play button a little harsher than was needed.

A woman appeared on the screen. Though none of them knew her name, it was Vivien Rook.

_ “If I haven’t returned to my desk by twenty two hundred, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means if you’re watching this, then I’m... Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That’s when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network.” _

An image came on screen of a cage in the sky around planet Earth, made up of satellites.

“What’s the Archangel Network?” The Doctor prompted.

“I’ve got Archangel. Everyone’s got it.” Martha explained.

“It’s a mobile phone network. Because look, it’s gone worldwide.” Jack explained, pointing at the image displayed. “They’ve got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they’re all carried by Archangel.”

The Doctor was given Martha’s phone. He pulled out sonic on it. “It’s in the phones! Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on.” He banged the phone against their makeshift table. That’s when they could finally hear it. The four beat rhythm that had been following them ever since they landed here. “There it is. That rhythm, it’s everywhere, ticking away in the subconscious.”

“What is it, mind control?” Martha asked. “Like when Terra made Mum sing?”

“No, no, no, no, no. That wasn’t mind control, this isn’t either. It’s subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it.” The Doctor explained. “But contained in that rhythm, in layers of code,  _ Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Don’t look at my cousin.  _ Whispering to the world. Oh, yes! That’s how he hid himself and Terra from me, because I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth- I should have sensed Terra. I should have known way back- both of us should have. The signal cancelled them out.”

“Any way you can stop it?” Jack asked.

“Not from down here. But now we know how he’s doing it.” The Doctor explained.

Martha knew where this was going. “And we can fight back.”

“Oh, yes!”

Not too long afterwards, the Doctor had taken apart the phone and the laptop. He had taken the TARDIS keys from the three of them. Jack had to pull his off a packed key ring. It hadn’t taken long before the task was done.

The Doctor held up the three keys on three separate strings. “Three TARDIS keys. Three pieces of the TARDIS, all with low level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in. Well, sort of. But now, the Archangel Network’s got a second low level signal. Weld the key to the network and Martha, look at me.” He grabbed a key, stepping back to be in full view. “You can see me, yes?”

Martha nodded, waiting for the big thing to take place that was getting him so excited. “Yes.”

“What about now?” He dropped the necklace over his head.

Martha blinked, her head tilting away. Jack snorted as Martha tried again and again to look at the Doctor.

“No, I’m here. Look at me.” The Doctor waved.

Martha could finally look at him. “It’s like I know you’re there, but I don’t  _ want  _ to know.”

“And back again.” He took off the key. “See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn’t make us invisible, just unnoticed.” He handed Jack his key back, then over to Martha. “Oh, I know what it’s like. It’s like, it’s like when you fancy someone and they don’t even know you exist. That’s what it’s like. Come on.” He rushed out from the warehouse.

Martha looked at Jack like she was in the Office.

Jack could only smile. “You too, huh?” First Rose, now Martha? And the Doctor kept telling Jack to stop it...I mean Jack was totally in love too, but come on, Doc. Jack’s only saving grace was that he knew for a fact Terra held no such feelings. He had been listening when Terra told Rose as much as her birthday party.

Then again...the man that Terra described had some striking similarities to this new Doctor...

Jack didn’t think the world could take it if those two ended up together. 

==TTW==

_ “Don’t run, don’t shout. Just keep your voice down. Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows.” _

_ “Like ghosts.” _

_ “Yeah, that’s what we are. Ghosts.” _

==TTW==

The Doctor, Jack, and Martha had found their way to an airstrip. Air Force One had come to land. They couldn’t hear what was being discussed, the plane too loud and the distance too far, but the Doctor spotted the red hats of UNIT all over the place. President Winters seemed full of himself.

The Doctor knew the procedures of UNIT, despite all evidence to the contrary. He remembered the Brigadier telling him the plans concocted by the Security Council again and again. His earlier selves had wanted to tune it out- working with Councils had never sat well with him- but the Doctor still knew it.

They couldn’t meet on any sovereign soil. The Doctor was able to hear the words Valiant, so he told it to Jack. While still angry at him over Torchwood, Jack was the one with the vortex manipulator they would need to get off the ground. When the President left, the Master and his wife laughed happily. The Master bid his wife goodbye.

For a moment, the Master was looking the way of the Doctor and the companions. The Doctor briefly feared being spotted, but the perception filter held. The Master showed no reaction of noticing them. 

Lucy left with a lot of the security guards. As they left, two police vans pulled up. The Master laughed, running to the van as the doors were opened by guards.

“Ha ha ha! Hi, guys!” The Master greeted in delight.

Two people were pulled out. Clive and Francine Jones.

“You can’t just do this.” Clive ranted, leaping out at the Master. His hands were bound by zip ties.

“All will be revealed.” The Master laughed while Tish was brought out. All three were walked over to another black car. 

“Don’t move.” The Doctor warned Martha.

Martha wanted to step forward, to run over to her family and keep them safe. “But-”

“Don’t.” The Doctor insisted.

Martha shook her head, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I’m gonna kill him.”

The Doctor couldn’t scold her for that, not without setting her off. He let her have her rage.

“What say I use this perception filter to walk up behind him and break his neck?” Jack asked.

“Now that sounds like Torchwood.” The Doctor scolded.

“No, that’s Terra.” Jack countered. “It’s a good plan.”

He wasn’t wrong. The Doctor could hear Terra now, either version of her. Both of them suggesting ways to kill the Master that wouldn’t get them caught. The Doctor was convinced that Terra would suggest long range shooting from behind the perception filter. “He’s a Time Lord, which makes him my responsibility. I’m not here to kill him, I’m here to save him.”

“Just saying. Terra would want to kill him.” Jack stated.

“Oh but I can’t forget my cousin!” The Master called out. “Bring her out!”

The second police van opened it’s doors. Out walked multiple guards, one dragging out a girl in a straight jacket with her mouth gagged.

“Hello Terra!” The Master cheered. “How are you today?”

Terra said nothing. The steel gag over her mouth helped with that.

“Well take off her mask, you idiots.” The Master scolded. “I wanna know what she has to say about all of this.”

The guard took the gag off from her mouth. Terra kept silent as it was taken back. The guards over her took a step back from her, ready to jump in defense of their prime minister.

Terra blinked at him.

The Master chuckled. Before he could say anything, life sparked in Terra’s eyes.

“ _ It ain’t been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I’d been married a long time ago.”  _ Terra sang rapidly. _ “Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton Eyed Joe?” _

The Master stared in confusion. “Wasn’t expecting that. Doesn’t mat-”

_ “Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more- no more- no more- no more! Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more.” _ Terra sang again, swaying to the tune.

The Master growled. “Alright- that’s enough.” He motioned for the guards to do their jobs.

The guards reached for her. Terra spun in place. She danced in circles around the infuriated Master.

_ “Doctor, doctor. Give me the news.”  _ Terra shouted her words to the skies, letting the wind carry them. She could only hope they were getting the message she was trying to spread. “ _ I got a bad case of loving you!” _

The Master slapped Terra in the face.

She gasped in pain. She righted herself quickly, staring at the Master with her eyes blown out. To an outside viewer, she looked high on something.

Then again...it was Terra.

_ “I would walk 500 miles-”  _ Terra shouted again. She tried to break loose to dance. The guard struggled to keep a handle on her. “- _ and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door-” _

The Master smacked Terra again. She fell to the ground in a heap. She didn’t stand back up. Or maybe that she was used to this treatment. Her reaction was a conditioned response.

The Jones’ watched in horror. Francine screamed at the sight, cowering from the guards holding her.

Without waiting for more input, the guards lifted Terra up by her elbows. She moved with the motion. The gag was tied back into her face. She took the treatment without complaint. They dragged her to the same prison van that had the Jones’.

The Master rushed over to his wife’s car.

The doors of the van were slammed shut.

Across the tarmac, three viewers were fuming in rage.

==TTW==

The Doctor, Jack, and Martha were transported onto the Valiant. All of them moaned and groaned at the transition. 

“Oh, that thing is rough.” Martha groaned, getting back to rights.

“I’ve has worse nights.” Jack stood up, yelling as he cleared the aches in his body. 

Counter, the Doctor stood up without nary a complaint. There was bigger work to do. He could sense it...sense something off on this ship...

“Welcome to the Valiant.” Jack introduced Martha.

“It’s dawn?” Martha asked, because it had just been the middle of the night. She walked over to the window. “Hold on, I thought this was a ship. Where’s the sea?”

“A ship for the twenty-first century, protecting the skies of planet Earth.” Jack explained.

The ship could fly.

How awesome was that?

==TTW==

Terra was back in her pantsuit again. This ugly not-her-dress that was just not her style, and it was obvious. Terra had been allowed to wear the bowtie again. It was helping keep her calm.

_ Bowties are cool _

_ Come along, Terra, time to work on the Valiant _

It was giving her strength she so desperately needed. 

“Ready for the day, Norah?” The Master asked.

“Always, Cousin Harry.” Terra replied, voice sugar sweet and lovely. She straightened her bowtie, thinking about a floppy haired idiot. “Especially when our guests arrive.”

The Master accepted this. She would be subdued again easily enough when the Doctor showed his face.

Together, the Time Lords and Lucy stepped off the elevator. Already the room was bustling with activity. People were working to get the place ready for the Toclafane. UNIT officials and American were dashing this way and that. There was a lot needed to be finished from their point of view.

The Master walked his two lady companions over to the American President. “Anything I can do?” He offered. President Winters glared at him for being a bother. Terra didn’t blame him. “I could make the tea, or isn’t that American enough? I don’t know, I could make grits. What are grits, anyway?”

“Boiled cornmeal.” Terra supplied. “And you wouldn’t like the tea. It’s all sugar and no anything else. That’s how I drink it, anyway.”

President Winters eyed her cautiously. “Who are you?”

“This is Norah Rettere, my cousin.” The Master introduced.

“His American translator.” Terra reported. “I’m here to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Winters still wasn’t all the impressed. “If you could show your  _ cousin _ where to sit, that would help.”

“Sure thing, Mr Prez!” Terra cheered. She turned, peppy. “Off we go, Cousin Harry and Lucy!” She locked her hand around the Master’s. She guided him and Lucy over to a trio of seats on the long table save up for them. 

“Misery guts.” The Master huffed. “What do you think?” He asked his wife while helping her into her seat. “It’s good, isn’t it?” 

“It’s beautiful.” Lucy praised.

Terra took a seat to the left of the Master’s chair. She beamed at the room.

_ We will rule over all this land and we will call it: ‘this land’ _

_ I think we should call it your GRAVE- _

_ Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! _

“Some of my best work.” The Master explained. He smiled in pride at everything. Lucy reached over to hold his hand. “Ministry of Defence. I helped design this place. Every detail.”

_ Not every detail  _ Terra thought. She thought about the carpet beneath her feet.  _ I made sure it was comfy enough for your corpse. _

Let the record show: 

Jack was right.

==TTW==

They had been running towards the conference room. Fairly standard procedure for an adventure with the Doctor. That’s what Jack expected when he found Terra and the Doctor again. That’s what Martha was used to.

You can understand their confusion when the Doctor suddenly stopped.

“We’ve no time for sightseeing.” Jack snapped around him. 

The Doctor held up his hand at them both. “No, wait. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Can’t you hear it?” He asked.

“Hear  _ what _ ?” Jack huffed.

“Doctor, my family’s on board!” Martha hissed.

“ _ Terra’s  _ onboard!” Jack reminded him sternly.

“Brilliant.” The Doctor reached for a nearby stairway. “This way.”

His companions dutifully followed behind. Yes they were rolling their eyes at him. Again, standard procedure while with the Doctor. They went down the stairway and down a hall, all at the Doctor’s lead.

It was only after throwing open a final door that the humans realized what he was running towards.

One box, her door’s still dark blue and still saying  _ ‘pull to open’.  _

“Oh, at last!” The Doctor cheered.

“Oh, yes!” Martha laughed in joy. It was finally starting to feel like there was a reason for hope. 

But Jack was quick to point out the more concerning questions. “What’s it doing on the Valiant?”

The Doctors used his key to open the door. The door opened quickly- it hadn’t been locked in the first place.

The inside was  _ not _ the warmly lit console room that he remembered. The green light had been replaced by the bright red of warning. The Master always had the penchant for the human kind of dramatics. Everyone knew  _ danger  _ was  _ mauve _ . The console itself was wrapped in a metal cage and blocked by wires descending from the top. The  _ screeching wheezing  _ noise that was a symptom of the parking break was going, only it sounded like someone gasping for the final dredges of air.

“What the hell’s he done?” Jack asked, shocked at the dramatic change. It was also his first time in the TARDIS in more than two hundred years.

“Don’t touch it.” The Doctor warned.

“I’m not going to.” Jack shook his head, disgusted.

“What’s he done though? Sounds like it’s sick.” Martha asked. 

The Doctor was looking at all the readings from the console and the metal cage. The truth was something too horrific to imagine, too terrible to even say out loud. The last TARDIS, butchered so awfully...he could hardly stomach it. “It can’t be. No, no, no, no, no, no, it can’t be.” 

“Doctor, what is it?” Martha asked again.

“He’s cannibalised the TARDIS.” The Doctor explained. Inside, he recoiled with the bitter taste of the words on his tongue.

“Is this what I think it is?” Jack asked. 

“It’s a paradox machine.” The Doctor confirmed.

“No, Doctor. Up there.” Jack pointed to it.

The Doctor followed his gaze.

Sure enough, up in the upper coral, it was there. Right where Terra usually sat, almost like her Bag knew where to go if lost.

==TTW==

“Two minutes, everyone.” Winters announced.

Terra perked up. “ _ 525,600 minutes-” _

“Shush.” The Master instructed.

Terra slumped. “Yessir.” She mimed zipping her lips, mocking the Master’s routine from the night before.

The Master gave her a thin glare. “Just once. Call me it just once.” Terra pointed to her lips. “Yes, just do it.”

She unzipped her lips. “Dobby has no Master. Dobby is a Free Elf.”

The Master rolled his eyes. “Can’t believe you got me to read those...”

Terra snorted. “You still wouldn’t read the last-”

Winters started speaking again, walking up stairs to the main point of the agreed upon First Contact. “According to the treaty, all armed personnel are requested to leave the flight deck immediately. Thank you.” As his instruction, the armed personnel marched out from the room.

The Master pulled out a bag of candy from his pocket. “Jelly baby?” He offered.

Terra reached for it first, Lucy just a second behind. “ _ Sucking too hard on a lollipop. _ ” Terra hummed. She popped the candy into her mouth. “ _ Oh love’s gonna get you down.” _

Lucy made a face of discomfort.

The Master patted her arm. “There, there. It’s alright. She’s here for a reason, after all.”

“ _...she told me what people say-” _

“Broadcasting at seven fifty eight with the arrival timed for eight hundred hours exactly.” Winters announced. “And, er, good luck to all of us.”

“ _ -ooh love’s gonna get you down.” _

==TTW==

The Doctor looked out the gauge. It was the only real thing on the giant metal mesh cage. “As soon as this hits red, it activates. At this speed, it’ll trigger at-” He pulled Jack’s arm down to see his watch. “-two minutes past eight.”

Jack pulled his arm back, adjusting Terra’s Bag on his shoulder. The damn thing was so heavy, Jack wondered how Terra made it look so easy. “First contact is at eight, then two minutes later-”

“What’s it for? What does a paradox machine  _ do _ ?” Martha asked.

“More important, can you stop it?” Jack prompted.

“Not till I know what it’s doing. Touch the wrong bit, blow up the solar system.” The Doctor warned.

Martha knelt by his side. “Then we’ve got to get to the Master, and Terra.”

“Yeah. How are we going to stop him and get her back?” Jack asked.

“Oh, I’ve got a way.” The Doctor supplied. Martha and Jack gawked at him. “Sorry, didn’t I mention it?”

“If Terra were here, she would smack you.” Martha groaned.

==TTW==

“My fellow Americans, patriots, people of the world.” Winters began, smiling towards the camera. “I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity, a role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much, but what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew.”

Terra could feel them.

Feel them now as she had felt them last night.

_ They were here _

_ There were back _

_ Her friends were back _

The Master sat up beside her. He could sense them too. Terra’s hearts were beginning to race. It was coming. It was almost time. She could feel the two minutes counting down...

“For as long as man has looked at the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold.”

_ Mind of glass, shattered stone _

_ Restore the girl- Make the mind her own _

“Now we know we are not alone. No longer unique in the universe.” 

Terra glanced to the Time Lord by her side. She braced herself, fighting the urge to turn back.

_ Alouette, gentille alouette _

_ Alouette, je te plumerai _

The Master was smiling. That was never good.

“And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane.” Winters turned around just as four floating orbs appeared.

Terra was proud to note she didn’t flinch like she had the last dozen times these things appeared.

“My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and designated representative of the United Nations.” Winters explained, voice monotone and unphased. “I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon.”

The Toclafane began to speak. Terra had trouble keeping track of which was which. If it wouldn’t hurt her too much, she would have tried learning their names. “ _ You’re not the Master  _ or _ Mummy.” _

“ _ We like the Mister Master.” _

_ “We like Mummy. _ ”

“ _ We don’t like  _ you _.” _

Winters was hopelessly confused. Terra pitied and mourned the man. “I can be master, if you so wish. I will accept mastery over you, if that is God’s will.”

“ _ Man is stupid.” _

“ _ Master is our friend.” _

“ _ Where’s my Mummy, pretty please?” _

Terra snickered in her seat. 

The Master was less subtle in his reaction. “Oh, all right then. It’s me!” The Master hopped up to his feet. “Ta da!” He twirled, smiling at the cameras when he stopped. “Sorry, sorry, I have this effect. People just get obsessed. Norah, be honest, is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don’t know. It’s crazy.”

Winters glared over at the Master, like a substitute teacher that was  _ done _ with that troublemaker student. “Saxon, what are you talking about?”

“I’m taking control, Uncle Sam, starting with you.” The Master turned to one of the Toclafane. “Kill him.”

To the shock of everyone in the room, the Toclafane fired a laser at Winters. Terra bit her lip, trying to decide if she hated this. In watch throughs, she hadn’t liked the murder as it meant everything was falling apart so fast. Now though...Terra was relieved. This meant it was almost over.

“Guards.” The Master instructed as he climbed up the stairs. He took Winters place-

_ How dare you stand where he once stood! _

The guards around the room pulled out guns. They aimed them at the panicking crowd. “Nobody move! Nobody move!”

“Now then, peoples of the Earth. Please attend carefully.” The Master grinned.

The Doctor ceased waiting patiently. There was no better time for it. He rushed past Terra, running toward the Master.

“Stop him!”

Two guards grabbed him first.

Terra curled her lips into a snarl.

“We meet at last, Doctor. Oh, ho. I  _ love  _ saying that.” The Master cheered.

“Stop it! Stop it now!” The Doctor demanded.

“As if a perception filter’s going to work on  _ me _ .” The Master snorted, rolling his eyes. He landed on the companions. “And look, it’s the girlie and the freak. Although, I’m not sure which one’s which.”

Jack- trying for his turn- ran ahead. Terra sat silently in her chair. That had been her plan until the Master pulled out a laser sonic. He hit Jack with it.

Terra sat up in her seat, pushing her lips shut to keep from screaming.

“Laser screwdriver. Who’d have sonic?” The Master asked. The humans in the room were watching in shock, confusion, and shock. Terra was looking over at the still corpse of Jack. “Oh don’t fret, Terra, there’s good news! He’s not dead for long. I get to kill him again!”

_ Well the carpet was soft enough for a corpse...guess I forgot it would be more than one corpse. _

“Master, just calm down.” The Doctor pleaded. Terra kept glancing over to Jack and Martha. Her concern growing the longer Jack lay there dead. “Just look at what you’re doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself-”

The Master rolled his eyes. He looked over at the cameras. “Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute. Let him go.”

The guards threw the Doctor down. There was more force than necessary. “It’s that sound. The sound in your head. What if I could help?”

“Oh, how to shut him up? I know. Memory Lane.” The Master climbed down the stairs, leaning down over the Doctor.

Martha looked Terra’s way. Terra felt frozen to her seat by that gaze. Had she not apologized enough? Was Martha mad still about her family, and Terra’s failures in keeping them safe? Terra had done as much as she could...she got thrown back into her room for it, her cheeks still stung, and her hearts were still broken. 

Terra would do better this time. She promised.

She would  _ be _ better for Martha.

“Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence?” The Master goaded a reaction for both of his fellow Time Lords. Terra was too disgusted in herself to even notice the blow. “I’ve been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooo, if I only had the Doctor’s biological code. Oh, wait a minute, I do.”

He skipped over to a metal briefcase.

“I’ve got his hand.” The Master began twisting a dial on the sonic. “And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?”

He aimed at the Doctor, and the Doctor  _ screamed _ .

Terra would remember these screams for a long time. There would be a day when she was happily enjoying tea with a friend, and a child playing outside would scream, and Terra would be on edge the rest of the day. Another time, she would be at an amusement park with her sister and the loud screams made Terra panic so much her sister had to drag her to a park bathroom. One day, she would see a child playing ‘laser fight’ with their uncle, and Terra couldn’t speak for hours after.

But this was the first time she’d hear them. She had a front row seat to the Doctor’s horrific age up.

Terra couldn’t handle it.

Once the Doctor fell, she pushed herself out of her seat. She went over to her companion who had finally come back to life. Martha had gone to help the Doctor. The aged, aged Doctor. His hair was a thinned white, and his skin sagged with artificial age. “Doctor? I’ve got you.”

“Ah, she’s a would be doctor.” The Master taunted.

Jack reached for Terra’s hand, squeezing it tight. “Terra.”

“I’m sorry.” Terra pleaded. “I’m so sorry, Jack, I-”

Jack shook his head. “Take your Bag, go with Martha-”

“I won’t leave you again.” Terra insisted. “Please. I can’t do it.”

“I won’t let you stay here with him.” Jack countered, giving her hand a firm assuring squeeze before pulling off the Bag. “Go. Help Martha.”

“But tonight, Martha Jones, we’ve flown them in all the way from prison.” The Master announced.

Terra was shaking her head, shuddering. Jack sat up, holding her hands. Guards brought in the Jones family. Minus Leo, who was still on the run with his wife and child.

Martha stood up, turning to her family. “Mum.”

“I’m sorry.” Francine whimpered.

Terra squeezed Jack’s hand, hugging her Bag to her chest. It felt like reuniting for a long lost friend. Only...she didn’t feel that much better with it. 

The Doctor sat up, Martha helping him. “The Toclafane. What are they?” The Master cupped a hand to his ear, as if the Doctor’s aging voice was too weak to be heard properly. “ _ Who _ are they?”

The Master knelt in front of his old friend. He pushed his hand on the Doctor’s chest. “Doctor, if I told you the truth, your hearts would  _ break _ .”

Three Toclafane appeared over the Master’s head. “ _ Is it time? Is it ready?” _

“ _ Is the machine singing?” _

After a check of his watch, the Master beamed. “Two minutes past.” He turned to the cameras again. “So, Earthings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!” A song began to play from the speakers. “Terra had the right of it. There’s a song for everything!” He grabbed his wife, dragging her over to the windows.

Terra glared up at him. “Radio Terra is better.”

Jack gave her a pat on the arm, smiling. “I always thought so.”

Terra tried to give him the Doctor’s scolding look, only it came short because she could never be too mad at Jack.

“How many do you think?” The Master asked his wife.

“I, I don’t know.” Lucy answered.

The Master smirked over at Terra while proudly exclaiming. “Six billion. Down you go, kids! Shall we decimate them? That sounds good. A nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population!”

Terra somersaulted to the Doctor’s side. She hugged the aged man, holding tight to him with an overwhelmed expression. 

The Doctor held her arm in return. She squeezed him again. Panic was coming out on her face. 

“You both have to stop him.” The Doctor told her.

“We will.” Terra promised. “I  _ promise _ .”

He told them all he could. Just a few short sentences. Terra soaked it in. 

Once he was done, the Doctor watched her with heartbreak in his eyes. Terra could only give him a nod. She held Martha’s hand.

The two women stood. Martha held up Jack’s manipulator. Terra typed in coordinates. They popped out with distress calls ringing in their ears from Earth. 

==TTW==

They had moved to a clearing down below. The sun was shining over them. All they could hear was a breeze, but they could see the Toclafane flying about overhead.

“We’re coming back for them, right?” Martha asked.

She reached for Martha’s hand, squeezing it. She squeezed it while showing her relief, that finally being away from the Master and finally on her own. “We always come back.” Terra promised.

==TTW==

But the world was not as below in the above. The Master and Lucy had brought the aged Doctor to the window. They were showing off their slaughter of mankind. 

“And so it came to pass that the human race fell, and the Earth was no more.” The Master beamed with his success. To be fair, he hadn’t noticed Terra and Martha were gone yet. “And I looked down upon my new dominion as Master of all, and I thought it  _ good _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow...canon stuff. It feels weird to be writing that again...but next week I’m back to non-canon events. Yeah! Time for the Year That Never Was!  
> Hey- if there was something in here that I have yet to tag, please send me a message.  
> Thanks to everyone that’s been leaving comments- they really encouraged me when writing this!


	11. The Chicks

They had been running nonstop since leaving the Valiant. Terra had insisted they keep moving, more than Martha had with the Doctor and Jack. Martha was exhausted. She wanted to take a minute to breathe. She had been running ever since they first picked up Jack from her time in the first place. Martha needed to stop.

But Terra was still running. She had the advantage of a night’s rest, probably. And eighteen months after Utopia. Martha was certain Terra had plenty of energy. Martha was running low on it. 

“Terra, slow down.” Martha stopped. She slumped herself against a tree, her shoulders heaving as she tried to catch her lungs up to the rest of her. “I need a break.”

Terra didn’t pause in her steps. She turned smoothly on her heels, rushing over to check on Martha. “A break? But we’re making great ti- mm. Right. Humans. Human biology. You can run as fast as me. Okay.” Terra sat down, crossing her legs beneath her before looking down at her legs in disgust.

Martha watched- for lack of anything better to do- as Terra tried to get comfortable on the dirt. She tried cross legged, tried reclining on her side, and even tried sitting on her head. Terra decided all of it was awful. Not sitting itself, it was the ugly pantsuit that the Master had made her wear. Martha thought that the outfit actually looked nice compared to the dress.

Terra walked behind the tree to change, leaving Martha alone on the other side. Martha had mostly caught her breath by then.

“Terra? Where are we even going?” Martha panted.

The Time Lady yelped. Martha guessed she fell on her side while changing. “Uh- I think there’s a lovely beach twenty miles that way. It’s been a while since I checked my map of England. I could give it a gander. Oh I bet I could make a thing out of it.”

Martha blew out an annoyed breath. She took one back in, reminding herself to stay calm. This Terra was a bit more easily distracted than her last self. “Alright, but...could we talk about what we’re going to do when we get there?”

There was the sounds of shuffling behind the tree. Martha briefly wondered if Terra had even heard her.

“Terra.” Martha prompted.

“Huh? Oh I was just thinking about that.”

“You don’t even have a Plan?” Martha asked, shocked. “You always have one. The Doctor even had one. What are we supposed to do about that?”

Terra was silent for a moment. “We should go shopping. We won’t know when we’ll have time to get supplies.”

“Terra!” Martha got up from her slouch, storming around the tree. Terra was wearing a pair of simple white pajamas. She was sliding on her boots when Martha walked up. “Give me something to work with here! We’re on the run, with no immediate plan, we’re lost in the woods right now! We can’t afford to be like that!” She then gestured to all of Terra.

She strapped on the boot- her favorite all time pair of pink boots. When she looked up at Martha, she was dejected. There was no cheery wide smile framed in pink lip gloss. There was no terrible joke coming forth. Not even her posture spoke of joy, instead spoke of a small trampled flower. “You’re right. I’m sorry- I was just...I’m sorry.”

Martha let out a sigh. A headache was coming to her, and she wished she had some painkillers to fight it off. Terra  _ was  _ right, if they were on the run they would need supplied. More than just sneaking in shops to get chips. They would need food, and camping supplies.

But Martha was getting exhausted. They both needed to rest, they needed to sit down and make a plan. They needed to work out what the Doctor wanted. “We need to stop for the night. I think I can see light from a town- if the perception filter still works I could grab something from the store.”

“It’s barely past sundown. The stores are still open and on fire. We’ll be seen.” Terra supplied. “Even with the filters. They’re not great on high alert.”

There went that plan. Martha ran her hand through her hair, sighing. Terra pulled off her Bag, setting it down on the ground. “So what can we do? The Doctor is counting on us.”

“We walk 500 miles, then 500 more.” Terra replied easily. Martha was too frustrated to deal with another song reference. “But you’re right. Rest comes first. I should have a tent in here. I used it to camp out in the forests of Boston! Nobody ever even noticed. Well Casey noticed, but I had let Casey notice so it was fine.”

Martha would regret asking it. She was already so tired, she didn’t need to ask it- “Why were you camping in Boston?”

“Because the Civil War was about to start, and I wasn’t gonna sleep in a barn.” Terra snorted. “Ah! Here it is.”

Terra pulled out a deconstructed tent. It looked big enough for the two of them, or maybe for three. Martha wondered if Terra had used it for the Doctor and Rose when she was around. Any late night adventures where they couldn’t manage a hotel. She watched as Terra set it up, the Time Lady not once looking Martha’s direction.

The would-be doctor looked up at the dark sky. She hadn’t thought it would get this dark, not without the Doctor fixing everything again. Martha had been so sure of it. They had the Doctor, the TARDIS, they knew about Archangel, everything should have worked out like always. Terra had even been there to help the Doctor- and still it all went wrong. She thought about what the Doctor said about the Toclafane, and about Terra, how things should have gone.

“The decimation should be complete.” Terra informed her. She again didn’t sound upbeat. “We only have to worry about patrols.”

Martha took her word for it. “Is the tent ready?”

Terra was nailing a bolt into the ground. “Yeah.”

Martha sat herself down by the tent, watching as Terra set up the rest of the camp. She muttered about Harry Potter while doing so. Martha was sure if she tried paying attention, she would have heard. Instead she missed out on all the light jokes Terra was making about the  _ Deathly Hallows. _

The campsite was ready. Terra was making sandwiches- again with foods she just had stored in the Bag. She was acting like this was a normal thing: to be on the run for her life, having to hide, everyone they knew locked away in jeopardy. Martha could hardly stand it.

So she didn’t.

“I don’t get how you’re like this.” Martha sighed, rubbing her head.

“I know, I’m weird.” Terra replied. She handed Martha a paper plate, two PB&J’s on it. “Did you want chips? I don’t have any, but did you want them? Or a water?”

“No. I don’t-” Martha was briefly thrown by Terra’s acceptance of the insult. “I want you to take it seriously!”

Terra blinked at Martha, her head tilted. Her expression seemed to be stuck on  _ ‘does not compute’. _ “...did you want a fire? This feels like the wrong time to set a fire. S’mores  _ are _ great but-”

“No!” Martha put down her plate, glaring Terra down. “I don’t mean the bloody camp! I mean my family, stuck up there with Saxon! The Doctor and Jack are too! Meanwhile you’re happily hopping about like it’s a vacation! This isn’t a vacation. We’re not in a happy mood. Everyone I love is in danger, and you don’t even care!”

For the record, Terra was sitting down now. She had to look up at Martha as she ranted on about how it looked from her perspective. Terra didn’t understand why it looked like she didn’t care. She was getting them far away from the  _ Valiant _ , or spotted by Toclafane. She had made a dinner that wouldn’t give off a smoke signal, telling people where they were. She was keeping Martha safe, so that Martha could help Terra and the Doctor. How was this not helping?

It must not be enough for Martha, Terra decided. Terra would have to do more. That made sense. Terra could do that. She had failed everyone for 18 months, she would be extra super good to make up for it.

_ If I could take it all back, I would now, _

_ I never meant to let you all down, _

_ And now I’ve got to try to turn it all around. _

“Okay.” Terra stood up, putting her own sandwich to the side. “Then we’ll go over the Plan. From everything the Doctor said, okay?”

Terra was unknowingly taking away a lot of the fight from Martha. It was hard to fight with someone that kept agreeing with you, and kept doing what you asked. Still, it was possible, if you wanted to be a complete jerk. Or if you didn’t know how to be  _ not _ angry. Martha was stuck in this position of  _ ‘mad’  _ and  _ ‘don’t want to cry’ _ .

“No! It’s not okay!” Martha snapped. “God I can’t believe-”

“Martha. The Doctor needs us.” Terra stated, trying to make herself sound bold and strong. “Could we just pause the mental breakdowns until we get that figured out?”

“Time Lords might be able to do that, but us normal humans  _ can’t!” _ Martha shouted.

_ ‘Technically I was human, but that’s fair’ _ Terra stood up. She hushed Martha, holding up a finger of the other’s mouth.

Martha was about to yell again. Terra glared Martha in the eyes, and Martha was stunned quiet by the intensity in Terra’s golden eyes. 

“The filters only work when we aren’t drawing attention to ourselves. If we keep shouting and fighting, we  _ will _ be noticed. If we get noticed, then it’s over. We’re done. No going back. No starting again. Just a big old  _ ‘game over’  _ screen. Okay? We can’t go back, not right now. The Doctor needs us to be better than that. So we’re going to sit down, eat sandwiches, and then go to bed. I have sleeping bags, but one of them is Carl’s and I haven’t had time to wash it. So, please don’t get mad about it.”

Martha silently nodded, glancing up the dark sky. She couldn’t even see the stars. All that there was left her with the echoes of people screaming, and the cities around them on fire.

Terra lowered her hand. The two women sat down, ate their sandwiches, and went to bed. Martha pretended her sleeping bag didn’t have dark stains and a knife hidden inside  _ (“Carl said I stole this! I knew she was wrong! Well technically I did but also I didn’t.”).  _ Neither of them slept well.

_ I know there’s a way, so I promised, _

_ I gonna clean up the mess I made, _

_ Maybe it’s not too late _

_ Maybe it’s not too late, oh. _

==TTW==

Terra had not slept.

But what was so new about that?

Instead, Martha woke up the next morning with Terra dressed up in another outfit. It wasn’t her dress, it was something new. Terra shifted her clothes this way and that, trying to make it settle just right.

Terra was humming another song.  _ “I’m just a little black rain cloud, hovering under a honey tree. I’m only a little black rain cloud, pay no attention to little me. Everyone knows that.” _

Martha blinked, trying to get the exhaustive grime from her eyes. “Terra? She mumbled.

Terra paused her song, twirling around to Martha. “Good morning!” She cheered. After straightening her bowtie, Terra presented herself to Martha. “What do you think, is it too much? The shirt is a more vivid pink, and the skort is denim, but the store didn’t have much to work with.”

Martha glanced at Terra’s new wardrobe. A loose pink top with a single strap sleeve, a denim knee length skirt, and her usual pink boots. Martha would almost say Terra was starting to look like herself again. But something else Terra said caught her attention.

“The store? What store?” Martha asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Oh, well.” Terra twisted her boot against the dirt. “I woke up earlier to go shoplifting.” She held up her Bag. “There’s foodstuff that doesn’t need to be cooked, snacks, and stuff I like. Also some more rechargeable batteries for flashlights- I lost mine in a Carl-related accident. I still have a portable charger for those, so I didn’t need another one. I was able to grab clothes for us- I don’t know if you’ll like it but I tried. Sorry I should’ve checked with you-”

“You went  _ into town?” _ Martha repeated. 

“In the middle of the night, and with the utmost care.” Terra assured Martha. “I’ve been shoplifting for as long as I can remember. It’s okay, Martha, I had it under control.”

“After all that talk about needing to stay safe, you go and do that!” Martha snapped. “I can’t believe you.”

Terra went over to her Bag. She pulled out a shopping bag, handing it over to Martha. “You need to change so I can break down the tent. There’s no telling when we’ll get to clean laundry, so don’t expect a lot of costume changes. I was able to get a map. Though my phone could get a map, that would mean connection to Archangel. Only way around that is the TARDIS, and using her is the last thing on my mind. We’re going off the grid, so we gotta go full scale offline.”

Martha looked into the plastic bag. The clothes in there didn’t look so awful. Still, on principle, Martha was annoyed. She wanted to yell and scold and shout, screaming out her rage at the frustration of her world turning on it’s head. She wanted to see Terra get mad. She wanted Terra to go up there, and take down Saxon like she did with the Family. Yet, Terra was so certain to hide and stay quiet. 

_ ‘Because the Doctor needs us’ _

_ Well he needs us to help him too! _

Martha thought this as she changed into clean clothes. She understood that these clothes were old and needed changing anyway. She just wished she could’ve used her TARDIS closet, or even her own closet in her flat.

The clothes were cute, which was somehow worse. Terra could hardly dress herself. How was she able to grab clothes that looked nice?! Still she dressed, and Terra broke down the tent. 

Terra smiled at Martha when it was all done. “Okay. I’ve got a lot of good camping foods, high in energy. Yes most of it is baby food pouches, they are surprisingly good and nutritious! There are also some Gatorades, but I mostly got pink and purple. Oh! And orange.”

She reached into her Bag. Martha was handed a compass and a breakfast bar. “Breakfast?”

“Yeah, no more full English for awhile.” Terra informed Martha with an apologetic smile. “Now, I’ve made a path-”

“How much sleep did you actually get?”

“I saw the sun rise.” Terra said instead of a proper answer. “The path is on my map, and so we don’t go  _ ‘Blair Witch’  _ on each I have multiple copies. Tomorrow, if I can find one, I’ll get you some more gear.”

“Don’t have any in the Bag?” Martha snarked, more than a little confused at just how much Terra had tucked away in that thing.

Terra winced. “It’s all Carl’s.”

Martha remembered the state of her sleeping bag. She didn’t much like the idea of having anything else that belonged to Carl again. “Who is Carl, anyway? You’ve never said.”

“She was my...my companion before Buttface.” Terra admitted. “We’ve never told you about her?”

Martha shook her head. _ ‘I bet Rose knew her too.’  _ “She? But...Carl is a bloke’s name.”

“What, my friend actually using her real name? That’s dumb- we’re hanging out with the Doctor. We gotta use fake names or our families could get hurt.” Terra excused. She pulled out the map, eyeing the path drawn on it pink Sharpie. “Now, if we start walking now we can make this tiny little circle before sunset. Did you want to talk about the plan as we walked, or over...why are you looking at me like that?”

Martha was glaring at Terra with a look that could only be described as divine hatred. The kind of look that didn’t even come with words. It just kept glaring at you, as if the fires would rain down upon their target. Terra was used to this look- she had met many insufferable people that had also met her. She wondered what had caused this look from Martha.

Was it Carl? It was probably Carl.

“Carl’s not dead. She’s still hopping around the universe.” Terra excused. “The Doctor doesn’t like her, so she stays away. Out of respect...for her continued streak of me not stabbing her in the back.”

“You...how could you say that?!” Martha scolded.

Terra was unsure what was wrong now. Wasn’t Martha confused as to why Carl wasn’t around? That’s what had confused her about Jack, and Rose. Was there something else? “Was it that I threatened to stab her?”

“No! About my family!”

“...I threatened to stab your family? I am very lost and confused by this.”

Martha huffed in rage. “It’s not my fault Saxon went after them! It’s your’s and the Doctor’s!”

Terra turned to give Martha a flat look. This flat innocent look, that was in contrast to Martha’s look of divine hatred. The look being thrown at Martha gave her pause. At apt analogy given their current environment: Martha felt like she had just poked a bear.

“No. It was...it wasn’t yours. It wasn’t ours.” Terra countered, speaking in a voice that demanded no argument. “I admit we had a part in it- of bringing danger to your home. I understand that. Please...Saxon made his own choices. We have nothing to do with it.”

Though Martha wanted to argue for argument’s sake, she couldn’t muster it up. The Doctor and Terra were always too good at making people stop arguing so they could get to work.

Terra was silently cursing her own existence. Dealing with these problems was supposed to be the Doctor’s job. She was supposed to be the sidekick who got shit done! She wasn’t supposed to be an emotional support friend! She was so fucking bad at that. Just look at Darcy and her catchphrase _ ‘criers get slapped’. _ Terra was  _ not _ meant to do main character shit. If she was the main character, that meant something had gone wrong.

So she shifted the conversation. “Which way is east?” She asked Martha.

The human hesitantly glanced down at the compass. She pointed off to her left. After a nod from Terra, they began walking.

It was silent for a long time. 

==TTW==

Not a word was exchanged as Martha finished off her  _ ‘breakfast’ _ , handing the trash over to Terra. The Time Lady dropped the remains into a trash bag. Not a word was said while walking over the terrain, even if that terrain was dangerous.

The sun was shining down on them. Terra had given Martha sunblock, and sunglasses. Martha could see smoke in the sky in the distance. She knew that it was more damage from the Toclafane. Martha mourned for her planet, for everyone being hurt by the Master.

“What do we do now?” Martha asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled. “Where are we going?”

“ _ Let’s tell the world all the things we’ve done _ .” Terra sang. She tapped her barefoot on the ground.  _ “Aliens, the future, and a burning sun. I’ve got a song and a smile so bright. One year’s all we have to make this right.” _

“Terra, I’m not tuned to Radio Terra.” Martha reminded her with exasperation. “You’ve got to explain.”

“Radio Terra is all I have. It’s all that makes me sane.” Terra countered, a disgusted look on her face. “I have to...have to keep him out. Nobody likes Radio Terra- the songs are all sucky. I’m sorry- it was dumb. I’ll stop.”

Nobody pointed out that Terra hadn’t sung at all during the hike. Even if Martha was okay enough to point it out, there was doubt on if she actually would. Reminding Terra Three that she was being quiet was like an invitation for more songs. Martha was in no hurry for that.

“I don’t even see how it’s what the Doctor said.” Martha asked.

“He said to use the countdown. The Master will have one before he conquers the universe, people like him always do.” Terra explained. “But I can see what the Doctor is going for, and it’s _ awesome.” _

Terra went on to explain the whole plan as she saw it. One that would take a year of hard work, determination, and the guts to actually do it. All they had to do was convince the entire human race to give Tinkerbell style prayer. That shouldn’t be so hard.

==TTW==

Above them, in the skies, one Time Lord was ranting in a furious rampage. He was ordering about the people on his ship. He had the 15 Archangel satellites working extensively.

He had to get her back.

_ He would get her back. _

She was going to pay for leaving. What was she even thinking? Did she think running around on that planet below would keep her from him? That being down there made her  _ safe _ ? 

He would teach her just how wrong that was, when she got back.

In the meanwhile, the freak could take out the punishment. Until the Master was certain that whatever he dished out on Terra wouldn’t kill her. 

_ He had to hunt her down all across this bloody planet to get. Her. Back. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone starts yelling at me about Martha, hear me out! Martha has had a bad couple days. The next time in the show we saw her was a year after everything fell apart, where she’s had a year to come to terms with how shit went down. She has seen her family imprisoned, her friends hurt, and Terra- from Martha’s POV- is sitting around telling jokes. I’m not saying Martha is right here, but I’m saying she has reasons to be mad. Martha had thought that the Doctor would fix everything like always, and now everything is broken. Every bit of support she has known is gone. So she takes it out on the one person available to her.  
> As for Terra, just because she is free from the Master does not mean she is free from the gaslighting. Gaslighting itself is making someone question their own sanity/perceptions/memories. By hearing Martha say she doesn’t care, Terra is now convinced that she is uncaring because Terra thinks her perceptions of the world are already skewed. Terra is not okay, and neither is Martha. They are both going to have some bad times while they sort themselves out.  
> In a lighter note: I made a Spotify playlist for the songs Terra's sings! You too can cope with all the terror and angst, with [Terra's Apocalypse Playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7w1x7yb6LX8Ovkbv3U6QvO?si=3OLSe1YBT5-fa0u6kqP5Lg) More songs will be added as Terra's breakdown continues.


	12. This Is Me Trying

They had been at it for two months now. The first month they had stayed in England/Scotland. Terra and Martha had gone from town to town, spreading the story of the Doctor. It had taken a while for Terra to explain the Plan. Martha had of course asked how they were going to talk to everyone on the planet without the Master knowing about it.

Terra’s answer?  _ “If two guys could go around the world in 180 days, then so can we! And we’ll just talk to more people along the way.” _

The frustration was understood. Their adventures with Martha were relatively short. Either they were done so fast Martha could barely tell what was happening until it was over, or lasted for  _ months _ . As much as she had hoped everything would be cleaned quickly, this would take awhile. Terra seemed to be in no rush to complete this task quickly. Taking this slow route seemed fun to her. 

But still, everyone in England was miserable. There wasn’t much Terra could do about that. Everyone knew someone that was dead from the Decimation, or a politician that was honestly just trying to do their job. Some might think Terra had problems looking them in the eye- she didn’t. Terra made eye contact, she spoke smoothly, and she never gave away that she had watched that relative die.

In return, Terra gave everyone a very simple instruction.

_ “And so, his light is growing faint. You all saw him. Aged like a raisin in the sunlight. If he goes out, our whole world is dead. The Doctor says he thinks he can get well again, if the people of Earth say his name. In one year, on the anniversary of the Decimation, the Master will start his campaign. All you have to do is say his name: Doctor. Say it, and I swear all will be right. So tell me, do you believe in Time Lords?” _

Martha was actually surprised at how good Terra was at telling the story. Then again, she had known the Doctor the longest so maybe that had something to do with it. Martha had heard only pieces of the story of Rose, but Terra had talked about Rose. She talked about Jack, a bloke named Mickey, she talked about a lot of people they had met even before their adventures. There were people that had met the Doctor before Rose. They agreed to spread the tale of the Doctor. Terra had warned them not to get killed by the Master- it would break the Doctor’s heart.

It made the Doctor and Rose sound like a Disney fairytale. A boy that never grew up, and a girl that wanted to see the stars.

What chance did Martha have against that?

_ (Martha wasn’t there the hour that Terra learned Donna Noble was part of the 10%. She wasn’t comforting Terra, because Terra didn’t think her grief was worth sharing. Martha could lose her own family, Terra losing the Most Important Woman in Creation was a blip. _

_ Donna would tell Terra ‘stop blipping me!’ The heartbreaking joke made Terra smile fondly.) _

But Terra, see, Terra was in charge of getting them from England to the Continent. Though UNIT was lost in the new world, they were still able to scramble something together. All Terra had to do was prove she had two hearts. They got her and Martha over to France.

The TARDIS was still translating. She had been converted to a paradox machine, but she could still give them language skills. Terra had threaded the same tale for all of them. She added details from the other companions about the Doctor, about how he had saved the world many times over and would again, all they had to do was believe in Time Lords.

Terra was doing her best.

So why didn’t it feel like enough?

Why did it feel like she hadn’t left the Master’s control?

She had been locked away in rooms before. She had been treated as a lab rat, once, for a full year. The Master had been easier- not once had there been an experiment done on her. Terra was never tested on with the Master. She was always the one working on other people, pushing that science onto them. The past twenty months were easy!

But she could barely sleep at night.

_ There are days when I feel so afraid  _

_ I can hardly remember to breathe _

Those rare times she  _ did  _ sleep, she had to be in a space with an open door. It wasn’t safe- they could be killed- but it was the only thing that gave Terra rest. She woke up screaming whenever someone closed the door.

_ When reality crashes in wave after wave _

_ Pulling me further beneath _

She was free. She shouldn’t be like this.

==TTW==

People had heard about Terra and Martha. The Master had ordered- sometime ago, but Terra and Martha didn’t exactly use radios or anything connecting back to Archangel- that Terra Johnson and Martha Jones be brought back  _ alive _ .

He had not said  _ well. _ Just  _ alive. _

_ So what’s the point in planning for a future _

_ When it all can be stolen away? _

Terra could be definitely labeled as paranoid. This was no better showcased than the month they worked their way through the Continent. Martha’s perception filter was working perfectly. Terra was exhausting herself using her hard earned mental abilities to keep that tiny bit of Archangel working again.  _ ‘Ignore the redheaded Time Lady, ignore the redheaded Time Lady’.  _ She had to turn it ‘off’ sometimes, to get people to hear the story and the message.

Anyone would be tired. Anyone would be high strung. Terra was on a razor’s edge. The only thing keeping her focused was that Martha was by her side. Since they heard the Master gave out broadcasts, Terra tricked out an old radio to receive broadcast signals. Yes it was just like her old speaker in her Toclafane lab, what of it?

_ It’s all I can do to hold on and survive _

_ When the colors have faded to gray _

Terra could make Martha happy. She could help the Doctor for Martha. It’s what Martha needed. Terra couldn’t take it if this Year broke Martha. 

Even if Terra could barely listen to her own heartbeats without spiraling. She couldn’t tell the story of the Doctor without hiding herself away after, letting herself shatter with the knowledge that she missed her friend.

Terra had to pretend she was fine. She had to, for Martha.

_ But my children need so much more from me _

_ And they give me the strength to hold on, whatever may come _

==TTW==

The Master still ranted and raved to his prisoners. He demanded they bring him Terra Johnson. Even the human would be enough!

They couldn’t even manage something simple like  _ that _ . 

The freak could take it in the meanwhile.

==TTW==

_ All that matters now _

_ Is where I go from here _

Terra was sitting in a tree. She didn’t often sit in trees, looking up at the stars. The people of Italy were very nice. Terra enjoyed the muted culture of the place, enjoyed taking in the people and sights.

Martha wanted to focus on the work. Terra had no place to blame her for that. Terra just...she needed a night to bolden herself. She had to bring up the same sad story of the Doctor and how he would save the planet.

_ There’s an easier way if I live for today _

_ The beating of my heart is all that matters _

But people had started to  _ talk. _

They wanted to know just  _ why  _ the Master was so eager to have Terra and Martha back. Was there more to the story than what Terra was saying? Was it truly up to the Doctor or...or was she hiding the truth, giving them a lie to keep the Master from finding out?

Did Terra Johnson plan to kill the Master?

It didn’t matter that Terra was planning exactly that. What mattered was that she hadn’t told anyone, and she went through great pains to do so. Someone had started the rumors. Humans watch too much TV, coming up with wild plots like this.

_ (Martha may have mentioned something to someone. “Yeah, he’s hurt Terra too. My family is up there and- and I know I can’t tell her she didn’t do anything cause- well she never talks about it, so how am I supposed to know?” _

_ Someone may have heard this. Someone may have spread a little rumor...just a little thing...as to just  _ how  _ the Master hurt Terra. And that anyone would want to kill the man who did that. _

_ And humans took to that dream like a spark to dry grass.) _

Terra didn’t want people thinking she was a murderer. She wanted them believing the Doctor was a magical being that would turn back time to save their lives. Let him be the hero. Let Terra fade in the background. She tensed at the static of her Master tracking radio. She was scared of closed doors in case she couldn’t open them. She had worn out a dozen sleeves from picking at the threads. Terra Johnson was no hero. 

Terra was doing this to make one human happy. If Martha was happy with Terra, then Terra must be doing a good job. 

Sure, she was still planning to kill the Master. Lucy didn’t need that weight on her heart, and any steps taken to keep Lucy alive after this was for the better. There wasn’t much that Terra could do, as the Doctor in  _ End of Time _ doesn’t show up until long after Lucy is dead. There’s a chance. Terra can make it harder- she could keep Lucy safe.

_ She makes sense of all of my chaos _

_ In ways I can never explain _

_ She turns all of my sadness into a smile _

_ She’s helping me live life again _

It would make Martha happy.

==TTW==

_ It’s the light in the eyes of my children _

_ It’s the sound of their laughter once more _

_ It’s the glimpse of a life I dared only to dream _

_ And a dream only life can restore _

There came a small issue when deciding if they should go South towards Africa, or continue going East towards Asia. Terra was worried about their time schedule if they weren’t constantly moving, and if they took too long how would they get back to England in time? In the show, Martha didn’t get to London in an airplane. Martha was insisting that they needed to tell  _ everyone. _

So they compromised, and went to Africa. Terra ignored her desire to stay in Egypt for a while, to research old pyramids and babble on about the Egytptian myths that she knew, and about the Bible stories her father had taught her as a child. Only that meant telling Martha her father told her stories, and Martha thought Terra didn’t remember her parents, so Terra had to keep her mouth shut.

That problem popped up a lot in Africa. Terra had human parents back Home, in her own little word that never met the Master or the Doctor but they had encountered aliens, you just weren’t supposed to talk about it without a tinfoil hat. Her human parents had been missionaries, traveling the globe to talk about God and stuff. Now here was Terra, traveling the globe to talk about the Doctor and stuff. Terra found something almost funny about the parallel- she was finally taking a dive into the family business.

Not that her parents would believe her, but she could pretend they would be proud.

They spent one month in Africa. Terra and Martha made it to about half the countries- and that’s by moving at night, usually by hitching a ride where their filters kept them from being noticed. Terra could see echoes of her parents in Africa. She saw her mother in religious dances, or of teachers still trying to help the kids in all of this. She saw her dad in leaders that fought back against the Master’s control- even if half of them were killed by Toclafane. Terra saw her parents, and was reminded how awfully they would think about her.

For the record, Terra’s parents weren’t awful people. They were school principals, teachers, and pastors. Terra had made up a religion for herself so she wouldn’t feel lonely, and she had effectively been her own teacher since she was ten. Terra loved her parents. They were a place where she could rest between shows, a place where Terra could rest. Yeah they would yell at her about homework or chores, not knowing that Terra had nightmares about her troubles. It was her own fault, she never talked to them about it. Sure the few times Terra had tried to tell them, they called her a liar.

Now she was spreading her story, walking the same steps her parents had, telling a story to people that believed. Terra had never been called by a liar by this crowd. She and Martha had been exalted for it. 

If Terra’s parents knew, they had to be proud...right?

According to a radio broadcast, there were reports of them in Kenya. Terra could remember being in that country before- only she’d been a mongoose. She doubted the Master knew about that. But that meant they had to move fast to get to Asia. Terra was in no mood for a bunch of Toclafane calling her ‘ _ mummy’ _ before killing her.

_ And I know that some may not understand _

_ But she’s guiding me safely to shore _

_ Not afraid anymore... _

==TTW==

_ All that matters now is where I go from here _

_ There’s an easier way if I live for today _

_ The singing in my heart is all that matters  _

They had made it to Asia. Terra was happy they’d survived the trip. They had cut it so close...She was so panicked she asked Martha to tell people about the Doctor for a few days. Terra was too paranoid to think about anything but making sure they were hidden. She wouldn’t be so exposed ever again.

People still asked about Terra. They still wanted to know if she would kill the Master or not. Some days it was all Terra could think about. Other days she thought about the Doctor, and Jack. Terra thought about the people she had met in the Haven. She had thought about her dog and her pig, and thought about her sister.

She thought about the world she was trying to save. The many people she hadn’t met yet, who would befriend the Doctor. She thought about Wilfred Mott, and the Ood, and Jenny, and River Song...she thought about them all and knew every step she took was another step to making sure they were all okay. Terra was fighting for the world itself.

Martha looked proud of that. She talked more, smiled more. Sure each time she looked up at the sky, or saw a Toclafane, or saw a happy family, Martha’s heart seemed to harden that little bit more. Terra wished there was something she could do to help. She couldn’t empathize, her parents and siblings were away in her home reality. Terra’s sister wasn’t so stupid to get herself stuck with the Master...Terra couldn’t connect to Martha to give healing.

Nevermind that Terra could have brought up the Doctor and Jack, and Martha would’ve understood. But Terra couldn’t do that without bringing up poor Lucy, that Martha never saw in those early months. Martha never watched as Lucy hardened too, falling closer and closer to the Master from too strong control of the mind and spirit. Terra had watched as Lucy chipped away. Terra couldn’t tell Martha she worried for the Master’s wife without sounding like she was mocking Martha’s grief.

It took three months for them to make it through Asia. That meant they were reaching a half-way point for their Year That Never Was. Terra thought it was great progress. For the people they couldn’t reach, Martha and Terra could trust the human instinct to gossip. Their story could spread to everyone. It was too important for it to fail. 

They were in the upswing of it now...Terra was actually feeling upbeat. They were going to work their way through the Americas. Terra’s homebase. She knew those states like the back of her hand. Terra hoped that for all that the Master had ruined it, she could still show Martha the best of it.

They had to go through Japan first.

_ It takes me far away _

_ There’s an easier way if I live for today _

_ The singing in my heart is all that matters _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I sat myself down, and asked myself “what if I wrote a chapter that had no dialogue?” And I thought it good.


	13. Separation Anxiety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Not gonna lie, Terra goes through something here that’s...well it’s fucked up. Please remember this story is...it has more chapters.  
> Thanks to everyone being so understanding about the last few chapters. Don’t...actually scratch that, please worry. Like worry a lot.  
> (Please remember: everybody comes back in Last of the Time Lords)

The world was broken. Martha saw it, she could see every place they walked. She remembered the faces of people in Hooverville, straining to find a difference between those people then and now. Martha and Terra had walked through broken cities, torn apart in a message to the other humans to stay compliant. 

Her dreams were plagued by images of broken towns, of burnt toys in houses. Martha couldn’t imagine how her own planet had fallen so far so fast. Each and every day, Martha met with more people that proved this world was terrible. Saxon had to be stopped. It was a damper that the rumor- of Martha and Terra searching for a way to kill the Master- wasn’t true. 

That didn’t stop Martha from thinking Terra was trying. Countless times, Terra had chosen violence where the Doctor had spoken for peace. Even in this trip, Martha had seen Terra reach for the gun in her Bag.

_(She missed Terra’s heavy breathing, the panicked darting of her eyes, that she hadn’t actually been reaching for a gun but for the Bag itself. Because she never had the Bag in the Warehouse.)_

Martha was feeling uneasy around the Time Lady. Sometimes...Terra seemed omniscient with how she was handling everything. Their pace, their stories, even the plan itself. Martha questioned if the Doctor had really given it all to Terra. Martha remembered what the Doctor had said. That even the Time Lords were scared of Terra’s power. If the Time Lords had made the Master, just how could Terra be worse than that?

Sometimes in some places, Terra would be animated when talking to people. Only when she thought they were alone did Terra completely change. She would droop, sit somewhere dark and not say a word. It baffled Martha. The Doctor was always talking and moving, always making some joke with Terra and Martha. The few times the Doctor had been upset, Terra had done something to comfort him. Was Martha supposed to comfort Terra now? She didn’t know how- what could she even say? She had no idea what was going through the girl’s head.

But then...Terra would find a lost child. She would walk them back to their family, or to a safe space in their family was dead. Martha pitied each one of those kids, who parents died in the decimation or in the few rebellions. Yet Terra gave them a small smile before going on her way.

One such time, Martha worked up the gumption to ask. They had been somewhere in India- constantly surrounded by people yet sticking out like sore thumbs. Still, their filters kept them out of sight from Toclafane and those loyal to Saxon. Terra had just crossed paths with a group of kids, all playing football. Terra was awful at it, running around like an over excited squirrel. She was focused more on talking about the Doctor.

After the game, one little child had come up to Terra. They had asked if the Doctor could bring back all the friends and family that had died in the Decimation. Martha wanted to cry just listening to this small child ask it so innocently...Terra had kept a bright smile up, promising just that.

Martha waited until the child was out of earshot.

“Why didn’t-” Martha stopped herself. She had learned over the months to not ask Terra why she wasn’t doing more. Whenever Martha asked that, Terra would get a sad look on her face, then spend the next three days working herself into exhaustion. “...they were so lonely.” Martha said instead.

Terra gave a polite shake of her head. “I get it, really I do. But we barely can manage the two of us on this trip. We...we can’t adopt a kid.”

“Adopt?” Martha asked. “No, that wasn’t what I-”

“I mean I really want to, don’t get me wrong. But I haven’t seen my own little doggo and little piggy in over two years, so I’m more than a little heartbroken already. If I get attached again, I don’t think I can take the heartache when they leave...” Terra explained. She rested her hands over her hearts, pouting. “Or when I do.”

Martha had heard about the pig, and she couldn’t forget Rebel. The dog that Terra had left behind just before going to Utopia. A fact so convenient, Martha wanted so badly to ignore it. 

_“The Schism isn’t something you forget._ _She’s been doing things- incredible things, yes, but impossible.”_

“Besides. We’re gonna save them all by the end of it.” Terra explained with a smile. “Doc Brown’s just impossible like that.”

She accepted Terra’s explanation. It was the only one making the most sense, anyhow. She _was_ right. The Doctor would break the paradox machine. Time would be fixed just...Martha couldn’t shake off that something wasn’t quite right. 

==TTW==

Terra said they were approaching seven months when they reached Japan. She had been so excited, telling Martha all the animes she had watched in her lifetime. Martha could hardly believe Terra liked those shows. Then again, cartoon characters that did the impossible and wore bright colors, with odd catchphrases and abilities? Maybe it wasn’t too far a leap...There was a damper put on when a lot of the animes she liked apparently hadn’t come out yet.

_“Like...the only one really out that people liked is Death Note. And nobody wants to talk about Death Note right now. It’s...ugh. My one shot to talk about it with fans in the country of origin...and it’s ruined.”_

And yet, Martha was stuck doing a lot of their explanations while Terra talked about lesser known animes to the side. Martha only heard snippets about ballerinas. Given how badly Terra could dance, Martha suspected the talk was more about fights. Isn’t that what happened in most animes?

They were on a coast city, preparing their next adventure out. Terra was certain the manipulator could be used for a few jumps, but then she would have to find a way to charge it. They would need to access the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand before heading to the Amerias. Terra figured they could start in Chile then work their way up. Martha agreed.

A small branch of the Rebellion was housing them. Terra was discussing routes with them to the tropical islands- apparently some of them had been in that line of work before everything fell apart. They offered to bring Martha and Terra along. Their filters would keep people from spotting them. Martha and Terra

That had been the plan.

Since it wasn’t a capitalized Plan, it was bound to go wrong.

See- as they were waiting to board the boat, Terra was talking to a fan of _Death Note._ Terra’s joy at finding a fellow fan was proven by her cheerful shout of _“Huzzah!”_ The conversation was very troubling. Terra and this Japanese man were having an in-depth discussion on the concept of justice itself. Martha has never wanted to see a show less in her life.

But then- _but then_ \- Terra’s radio sparked to life. It’s hard to say why exactly it chose now to do this. It could be any number of reasons. Protagonist powers were a decent excuse. Terra’s radio _was_ set to only activate when news was _important_ and _relevant._ Well technically it wasn’t, Terra was just tuning it to the Archangel Network through her own mind. It should really only work when Terra said it would work. This could only mean Terra _told it_ to turn on, at that specific time, with its specific broadcast. But that wasn’t possible, as Terra was deep in a conversation about rules of a Death Note.

Still. The radio gave out this broadcast.

_“...we are asking again, if anyone has any information on the fugitives: Martha Jones, and Terra Johnson. They are enemies of your Master. Recently they were reported to have been kept safe in Japan. If they are not returned soon, your Lord and Master will be much displeased. They could be using aliases, such as: Jane Doe, Norah Rettere, or Friend of the Doctor...”_

“Norah?” The man asked. “You are Norah?”

Terra tensed. Her hands gripped the strap of her Bag, holding it tighter to her. The radio- hanging off the Bag- buzzed as it turned off. “I don’t answer to that name. I would appreciate it if you dropped it.”

There are a lot of factors for why the man did so. It was most likely their talk of Death Note fresh in his mind, or maybe it was hearing she was an enemy of the Master. The man gave in, deciding instead to help them board the boat.

The guy behind him had a much harsher reaction.

“I know a Norah Rettere.” The second man stated, glaring towards Terra.

She held tighter to the Bag. “It’s nothing.”

Martha watched- concern growing in her stomach.

The guy glared. His eyes narrowed on Terra, marching over towards her. “Norah Rettere- I know that name. That is the name of-”

“That girl never existed.” Terra dismissed. “It’s nothing.”

“I had friends in London.” The guy snapped. “One friend- she was in Torchwood.”

It was very telling how blank Terra’s face went at that. Martha had only seen that blankness a handful of times in the past six months. 

“She says that Norah is the Master’s cousin!” That had a lot of people around them tensing up. “You are like him- aren’t you!”

“We’re the same species, that’s all.” Terra answered. “I’m nothing like the Master. We should really be going.”

The guy only growled, the growl of Cujo finally being let off his chain.

Martha reached over to her friend. “Terra-”

“Martha go- you all need to **go**!” Terra ordered.

The next thing Martha knew, she was on a boat. The crew were all working to set the ship to sail. She could only spot Terra on the port by the bright pink of her dress. 

==TTW==

They were yelling at her again.

Why did humanity have to be so _loud?_

“You- you are a monster!”

_They weren’t this mad before. She remembered existing around humanity in quiet. The only sounds were shrieks bouncing off metal walls. Her own? Maybe? There hadn’t been voices outside her own head. Why was everyone so loud now?_

“You are just like him!”

_She was certain she hadn’t done anything...or maybe she had. She remembered her own Rules but maybe she had forgotten everyone else’s. Usually she was punished when she broke those rules. She needed to play along, make them believe she was normal again. Was she using her inside voice, her inside-my-head voice, or her outside voice?_

“You are going to kill us!”

_I have killed humanity before. Why would I do it again? I don’t want to do it again...but I’m so scared._

The guy grabbed her arm. Terra was so frightened- nobody touched her. Not in so long. Nobody did except little kids and Martha. The last touches she had known were from the Master’s hand on her face, and the _wrong wrong wrong_ of Jack. She didn’t like it when people touched her.

Terra could only glare at the guy. She sagged in his grip like a beaten puppy, a puppet with her string cut, a rag doll that had never learned how to stand. Her glare had been more fierce, long ago. This glare was pathetic and whimper-ish. Her sister would be ashamed at the sight. “I would stay back, good sir.”

The guy did not listen. Terra must have given herself a face nobody listened to.

“We give you back, he will leave us be!” The guy snapped. The crowd that had gathered around them shouted their agreements.

A crowd? Terra did not remember a crowd. When...when had there been time for a crowd? Wasn’t everybody on the boat? Why hadn’t everyone been on the boat- they needed to make sure Martha got to the Philippines okay.

Wait... _give me back?_

“Don’t send me back.” Terra pleaded. 

_‘She couldn’t go back_

_Down, down thy soul is cast_

_From the Earth whenceforth ye fell_

_The path of fire leads thee to_

_Spooky Time Lady Hell Dream’_

“She’s right. We can’t give her back.” Someone spoke up. For a moment, Terra felt relief. She knew it was too good to be true, so she squashed it down. Things had never gone her way. Neither would this, not if her luck proved true. She could never have something as foolish as hope. “We are going to die anyway. It wouldn’t do anything to give her up.”

“Then we kill her!” The guy announced to the proud roar of the crowd.

_‘Now I’ve gone and done it again_

_Committed another awful sin_

_I left my human companion on her own_

_Oh humanity, how could I have done this to you?_

_How could I break after all I’ve been through?_

_All now my soul with doth be thrown..._

_Back into Spooky Time Lady hell dream!’_

“No.” Terra shook her head, trying to push off the hands grabbing at her arms. “No- no-”

They did not listen.

Terra used to be so good at getting people to listen. It had been a superpower...it was gone now.

She wouldn’t stay dead, not really. Either she would wake up back Home, or she would wake up when Earth refreshed itself. She didn’t have to be afraid. She didn’t have to be crying.

They were dragging her to the port. The same port where she had pushed the boat- or had she pushed the people on it? It didn’t matter. Martha was here to see this. Jack wasn’t here to see this. Her sister wasn’t here to see her like this.

_Then again...she’d had this face as long as the second one...maybe a makeover was needed. Terra had been so weak, falling into Saxon’s clutches and falling into humanity and failing failing..._

_‘Down, down into the Void!_

_See where you belong!_

_There is nothing you can do!_

_No escape from Spooky Time Lady Hell Dream!’_

She wouldn’t fall again.

Instead she would scream. Scream with something buried deep down, buried beneath the darkness of the Void and the quiet that had been forced into Terra since she was first imprisoned.

She did not intend for what happened next.

==TTW==

From the distance, Martha was sailing on the boat that was moving faster than the crew expected. She was ignored as she held the rail, looking towards the port. The bright pink of Terra had faded into the skyline.

But whatever was happening now, Martha saw quite clearly.

Martha could only see a swirling storm. A mushroom cloud glowing with the sunset around it. In horror, she watched as the cloud dissipated over what was obviously the destruction of her last remaining friend.

==TTW==

Terra’s brain hurt. It was a pain she had felt before, in a short scale. 

This wasn’t being kicked down, like by a Stephen King bully type.

This was like being hit under a mountain. This was being drowned in the ocean’s deepest pit. This was actually being thrown into the sun from _‘42’_. 

This was a thousand million voices running through her head. This was an entire country of people screaming as they entered the other side through her. The entire force of them dying echoed through her, it became her. It enclosed her so completely in their death throes that she could hardly find herself in the chaos.

One thing brought her back to ground.

_‘I don’t hear Martha’s voice._

_Thank the Author.’_

Then Terra passed out in a country of corpses.

==TTW==

He had no way of telling if she was alive or dead.

The Toclafane reported no sightings of Terra, or the little snit. The Master had been furious, as not only had the threat been useless . The Toclafane had reported that everyone had already been dead.

The Master had felt that. He had wondered if it had been true, if all of Japan had really dropped dead like someone turned off the little switches in the brains. The Master had still burned it down. Burned down miles and miles of humans that had been keeping Terra away from him. 

As was normal, he took out his aggression on the freak. Because if Terra was dead, before the Master had his chance to take out his rage, then the Master would burn a lot more than Japan. 

He heard the door behind him open. A Toclafane would normally teleport, so it was probably his stupid wife. He turned round to snap at her, surprised to see a head of black hair instead of blonde. 

The girl was young, younger than everybody onboard. She was watching the freak, purple eyes glinting in delight. She was dressed in black leather clothes. This human was a killer. A trained, perfect killer that seemed delighted to kill the freak on the spot. The Master wanted to grin at her.

But she was entering into places where she wasn’t allowed, so she would have to go next.

“You’re not doing it right.” She told him.

He raised an eyebrow. “Why shouldn’t I just kill you?”

“I can show you how.” The girl countered. She held out her arm, a small blade sliding from her sleeve into her hand.

She walked up to the Master, her gaze set firmly on the freak. The Master took a step back, happy for any sort of distance. Just because he liked torturing the freak didn’t mean he liked being in the same space as it. How had Terra withstood it, way back when? He was an abomination beyond what the Time Lords were willing to create.

“First we have to reset.” The girl slashed at his throat. The freak quickly died. After a moment, he gasped back to life. “See, it hurts more if you get right _here_ -” The girl pushed the blade in between Jack’s ribs. He groaned in pain. “-but see, he’s not dead. He won’t die even from that. If you used this on Terra Johnson-”

“Who said that’s what I wanted?” The Master asked. “It’s more fun to play with the freak.”

“Everyone who knows her wants to torture her. She likes the ones that bite back.” The girl waved off. “If she dies from torture, she’ll just regenerate into someone who cries and whimpers and just submits to it. She won’t react to it at all.”

The Master hummed, eyeing the girl. “You know her, then?”

The girl just chuckled. “I like to think I started the trend.” She twirled the knife between her fingers. “Terra reacts better to psychological torture. She can take a beating as well as anyone that’s gone toe-to-toe with a gorilla.” The girl spun the knife in her fingers. “But if she knows-” She stuck the knife in again to the freak’s side. “-that her friends are suffering because of her? That’ll work. She’s her own worst enemy like that.”

“Who are you, how’d you get in?” The Master asked.

“Me? I’m Gamora, but that’s not important. The boss has a proposition for you.” The girl reported. She took her knife out from the freak’s side, who grunted in pain. “She thought you would like it.”

“Why should I believe you?” The Master asked.

Gamora grinned. “Because I know Terra. And that’ll be enough, won’t it?”

The Master conceded that. He hated it, hated conceding, but she had a point. He had to get Terra back. He had to make her pay. “You better make it worth it. Or else I’ll use your little trick on you.”

Gamora only laughed as they walked out.

Jack was left with two open wounds on his side. Blood steadily leaked from him. He would be killed in the morning, to spare him the pain of the infection he got from Gamora’s knife.

Ah...Gamora was awfully good at her job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay? Okay. Not great, yeah. This was something I had been trying to write for some time, with the help of the asshole known as djmegamouth. We decided that what was worse than a psychic breakdown? A double psychic breakdown. Terra essentially used her powers to kill all of Japan, and in doing so brought their spirits through her as they died.  
> Yeah. It’s bad.  
> And Martha watched, whoops!  
> Yes Darcy/Gamora is here now! I mentioned in earlier fics she would appear in the Year, and now she’s here! She and her team (Drax, Groot, Rocket, and the boss) will appear in other chapters. Feel free to fret.  
> An update: there’s a Spotify playlist of every song Terra has sung in this story! It’s ‘Terra’s Apocalypse Playlist’. I update it each week with the extra songs.  
> Just 4 chapters left...who’s ready?!


	14. Not All Who Wander

The worst part was she wasn’t supposed to be there. She was supposed to be dealing with matters in the States. Elle was never good with those sorts of deadlines though. And spending time with Sarah Jane always brightened her up. Pity how it was all so dark now...

Technically Elle was supposed to be back Home. She didn’t see much point in that. Anything she would do at home, she could do here. A few extra decades wouldn’t be any skin off her back. Elle wanted to see how this world played out. She had a real friend in Sarah Jane, and the Doctor. Any face he wore.

So when the world seemingly started to end, Elle knew she had to stay. She did all she could to care for the people in London. If the Doctor was in the hands of the Master, then the people of Earth needed all the help it could get. Now, six months in, Elle was one of the leaders of the Rebellion. If Terra and Martha were walking the world, they had good reasons for it. Elle had to make sure they could return to something.

Elle was walking through London. She was checking for any stragglers. Some people had lost their homes through the takeover, as their parents or relatives died and nobody could pay rent or give them care. Through the Rebellion, Elle made sure everyone had someplace to live. This meant a lot of wandering the streets.

She had found a few homeless children. Elle was about to take them with her to the Rebellion, when she spotted another child up ahead in the alley. Elle told the Rebellion member with her to take the kids to a new home. Once they were gone, Elle walked up the alleyway.

“Hey, you alright?” Elle asked. The figure had been digging through a trash bin. They froze at Elle’s words. “Don’t mind me, just making sure everybody has a place to sleep at night. You have to when the Toclafane run patrols.”

The figure flinched back. Elle knew the signs of a kid about to run. She’d lived a few lives on the police beat. She walked closer to the kid.

“I’m not the police, or anyone official. I’m just a friendly neighborhood lady.” Elle assured. She paused when she got close.

She  _ knew  _ this girl. About as well as she knew her own back. 

She couldn’t though. Elle had never seen her before in her life. In any of her lives, in any of her worlds. Elle would have known if she brought this girl in.

Well not her exactly. This girl clearly wasn’t finished  _ ‘cooking’  _ yet. She would be a Traveler, just like Elle, whenever someone from back Home was ready to come in.

“Hey, don’t I know-”

The girl jumped down, running up the alleyway.

“Hey wait!” Elle called out, giving chase after her. She turned alleyway corners, racing to catch up with the girl. 

The girl was fast. Inhumanly fast one could say. Elle wasn’t one to give up. She couldn’t be that fast, she had human legs. She would have to think fast instead.

Elle dashed down a different alley. From where the girl was running, she would be met with a dead end. The alley Elle ran down would get there faster. Sure enough, Elle made it to the end to see the figure. The dead end reeked from old garbage and frozen winter sludge that melted from the day’s heat. The girl was trying to lift up the sewer grate- the heavy metal disk barely swinging up.

_ Okay. She was smart too. _

Elle ran towards her. “Those things aren’t as easy to pick up as the ninja turtles make it seem, huh?”

The girl still kept trying to lift it. “I’m not- going- to  _ him _ !”

Elle has heard those hissed words before. A lot of people had thought the Rebellion members were stooges for the Master. It had taken a lot of work to get various people to trust them. “Good.” She walked over, kneeling down.

The girl flinched back, nearly crushing her fingers under the metal grate in her haste. Elle has to grab the grate to keep it from doing so.

“I’m not looking to bring the Master anymore people to torture.” Elle stated. The girl did not flinch back, nor did she come any closer. She waited, watching Elle with eyes much wiser than most of the humans Elle had saved. “Strictly human here, for the Rebellion.”

Tension in the girl’s shoulder visibly shifted. She helped Elle lift the grate, move it just enough that it wouldn’t cause injury to drop it. “Thought the Rebellions had died out.”

Elle shook her head. “Humans are stubborn like that.”

The girl’s mouth curled down into a confused frown. Understanding lit up behind her wide eyes. 

They both heard mechanical sounds from the way they came. Elle and the girl turned towards it, instantly on alert. They knew those sounds. Everyone living on Earth knew those sounds, had lost someone to those sounds. 

Toclafane.

“That can’t be. Patrol isn’t for another hour.” Elle tried to convince herself.

The girl pushed the sewer grate aside. She started to climb down it. “Something happened. They’re searching early.”

Elle turned back to the girl. “What do you mean? What happ-” The sounds were getting closer. There wasn’t time to ask questions, they both knew it.

The girl started climbing down into the sewer. After a moment to curse her existence, wondering if Home was really so bad that she couldn’t go back to avoid the sewers, Elle climbed down.

She was barely able to get the grate on before the Toclafane flew overhead. As she heard the whirs and beeps of the Toclafane, her heart raced. Anybody else would have been scared, or panicking about being caught. Elle was feeling nostalgia for her days with the Doctor. The Toclafane were no Daleks.

Elle looked down the ladder, seeing the girl leaning on her knees. “Are you okay?” The girl nodded. “Great, wonderful. I’m Elle Patterson.”

The girl looked up at Elle. “Leah Luna-Johnson.”

==TTW==

Leah guided Elle through the sewer. It smelled awful. If resources weren’t so strapped, Elle would burn her clothes. Leah didn’t seem to mind. Or maybe she’d just gotten used to it.

They walked a while beneath the streets of London. Leah walked the sewers like she had them memorized. Given that they had been in an apocalypse for six months, Elle was willing to bet that Leah had done just that. 

It was nearing the usual time for Toclafane nightly patrol when Leah stopped near another sewer grate. She climbed up the ladder.

“Whoa, hey. The Toclafane-” Elle began.

Leah shook her head. “I can’t hear them. Even in their quiet mode, their generators make a humm as they fly.” She kept climbing.

Elle wanted to argue that. She really did. Sadly, this kid was gonna climb out no matter what Elle said. She climbed up after Leah with the intention of keeping her safe from the robots. 

On the surface, they were in some district of abandoned houses. It was hard to tell if they were like this because people had died or if they were like this in the before times. Leah grabbed Elle’s arm, dragging her off into the shadows of the sidewalk. Elle couldn’t hear any humming but she wasn’t willing to take that risk. They walked up the road to an abandoned home. Leah climbed in through the window.

As Elle climbed in after her, she heard the cocking of a gun.

“Come on! Put that down.” Leah instructed with a put upon sigh.

“We don’t know if we can trust her.” A male voice countered. The sun had set long ago, and these two hadn’t turned on any lights. Elle couldn’t see anything about this guy. She knew all of them were Americans, or had the accent. “You can’t keep being this naive.”

“She followed me! What was I supposed to do, let a bot kill her?” Leah asked.

“Yes. Yes that’s what you were supposed to do.” The young man replied.

“For the record, I’m glad she didn’t.” Elle piped in. She tried to give Leah an appreciative smile- it was hard to tell if she got it, what with no one turning on any lights.

The young man scoffed. “We can’t afford to trust people off the street.”

“She’s different.” Leah argued.

Leah turned on a small electric lamp. The blue glow of it let Elle see the young man so eager to kill her. The gun was still pointed her way. The man behind it was barely older than Leah herself. Two kids, living on their own. Was this guy an alien too?

“I’m Elle Patterson, I work for the Rebellion.” Elle explained. “When I met your friend here, the Rebellion was searching for stragglers. Your friend got me out of a tough spot with the Toclafane.”

The young man didn’t believe her. Elle couldn’t blame him. Most rebellions were quieted by the Master. If anything, most people would suspect the Rebellion of being a honey trap for stragglers.

“The Rebellion is done for.” The young man stated. He pushed the gun into his pocket. “We can’t depend on them right now.”

“Why not?” Leah asked. “Because you were saying it’s getting harder to stay unnoticed.”

The young man lifted up a nearby radio. He flipped it on.

_ “-and if you are just tuning it, we have confirmation. Japan is in flames. I repeat, Japan is in flames. Terra Johnson and Martha Jones were last seen there. It could be they were protecting them, which is why our Master showed his rage towards the country. There is no confirmation for if these fugitives survived-” _

He turned it off. Elle and Leah were gawking at the radio.

“The early patrol...” Elle realized.

“He wanted to see if she had survived, so he ordered all the Toclafane to search.” Leah realized.

“And if Terra Johnson and Martha Jones are dead, the Rebellion has nothing.” He finished. “So. Ms Patterson. Get out of our house.”

Leah shook her head. She sat herself down on a dusty couch. “She- she can’t be dead. She can’t!”

The young man continued to stare Elle down. “I said leave.”

“No.” Elle replied. “If that’s true, then you need protection more than ever. The Master will be worse until we know their fates. You kids need to get someplace safe!”

“What’s safe anymore?” The young man argued. 

“Garfield, she’s right.” Leah ran her hand down her loose hair. “We knew we couldn’t stay here forever.”

Garfield shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. A group that large is a sitting target. They’ll only get us killed.”

“You can’t know that. Maybe we can take the chance.” Leah argued.

“Two Americans in a group of Brits? He’ll know something is up. Especially  _ you _ .” Garfield reasoned.

Leah darted her eyes to Elle. She fretted with the ends of her sleeves.

“It’s alright, I know you’re an alien.” Elle explained. “I won’t tell anybody.”

Garfield just laughed, derisively. “See? She knows! We can’t take that chance with the rest of her lot! They’ll throw us to the Master for a piece of bread!”

“We’re not like that.” Elle dismissed. 

“No. You can’t speak for that whole group.” Garfield snapped. “You may be saving a few souls here or there, that doesn’t change anything. People still give into him. He’s still in our heads. He uses those Archangel satellites to control us even now- yeah we know about  _ that _ . He could send out a command ordering everyone to give us up, they would do it without hesitation!”

Elle wanted to have a case against that. The Rebellion had heard about the mind control from the phones. Most of the people had heard Terra and Martha’s story about saving the Earth. That it depended on the human race using those same satellites against the Master. Elle and the Rebellion were helping that cause: keeping humans alive.

But still. People were scared. Humans didn’t much like the idea of something in their head. However, they were bonded in their hatred towards the Master. Elle had found nothing got humans working together more than a shared hatred of something. Yeah they were terrified, but they had something to look towards with the Doctor defeating the Master. 

“Then I don’t speak for the whole group. Just for me.” Elle explained. “You can trust me.”

Garfield shook his head. “What about your Doctor? Do you even know what he’s like?”

“Yes. I traveled with him, once upon a time.” Elle replied. “He’s saved humanity again and again, without anyone knowing. He’ll save us again.”

“I know your Doctor too.” Garfield argued. “And he’s not like that. All he’s done is get people killed. Have you ever heard about the other people he traveled with? Hear about how many of them died? My old neighbors at Powell Estates were killed just because they hung out with him! Them, and their friends. Now the Doctor’s only other companions were murdered. I don’t trust anyone who runs with the Doctor.”

Elle looked towards Leah. The poor girl curling into a ball on the couch. “Leah? Do you believe me?”

“Everyone I knew is dead.” Leah answered. “All my friends, the Master killed them. The only one left was on the Valiant that day- I watched the Master shoot him. He knew the Doctor, and Terra. Why should I trust you?” 

“Because, I know the Doctor. He’s not like Garfield said.”

“So does half this fucking island.” Leah snapped. “Hate to break it to you, but the Doctor got around. And Garfield has stuck around. He saved my life from the Master finding me! He- he was there for me when my Moms-” Leah choked up. She forcefully wiped tears from her cheeks.

Elle wanted to comfort the poor girl. Too many children had lost their families.

Garfield stalked closer to Elle. He reached for the gun in his pocket without bringing it out. “We’ll manage without you.”

==TTW==

Elle made it back to the Rebellion. When asked, she would say she spent the night in the sewers. Everyone believed her from the smell.

They had word that Martha was seen in the Philippines. 

Terra had yet to be found.

==TTW==

Up in the sky, the Master was having a meeting. 

The contents of this meeting would be hidden for just a few days. 

The Doctor listened to the whole thing. Both his hearts sank with every word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one was so late, I got a little sick last weekend. Right when I got better school started up again! College sucks, work is a pain, but I get to see old friends again so suck it, Quarantine!


	15. I Hurt No One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did Calendar Math. If they’re at the six month point, and it started in May, then it’s November. Wanna know what else started in November? Just a month long night.  
> When I figured that out, I turned into the gif of the hag from Snow White, laughing as she descended into darkness.

Snow crunched beneath her boots. Terra could hear it- could feel the chill through her clothes. Harsh biting breezes pushed on her cheeks, pushing back her hair from her shoulders. 

Terra was confused. Just moments ago, it had been warm. She looked around where she was, trying to spot anything that would give her clues. As far as her eyes could see, it was the white barrenness of snow. There was something a mile or so away, but her head was pounding so much she couldn’t make it out. Clouds were in the gloomy gray sky, thought not the light shapely ones of summer months. The sun shined down, giving Terra no warmth.

_ ‘The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here.’ _

Terra hitched on a breath, shuddering with something besides the cold. She didn’t want to be alone. She shouldn’t be alone. There had to be a clue, a sign, for why she was here all of sudden. The last thing she remembered was talking about the Potato Chip scene while Martha was-

The memory made Terra drop her knees into the snow. Flashes of it were playing for her. Humans were yelling so loudly at her. Martha needed to be safe- if Terra failed, then Martha had to complete the Doctor’s mission. It couldn’t be anyone else. Terra had stopped caring about herself some time ago, Martha’s safety was more important.

Jack’s Vortex Manipulator was on her wrist. Terra hadn’t remembered using it, or fixing it, or doing anything to it really. One second she was being attacked on all sides by angry Japanese Rebellion members, the next she was in the barren tundra.

Even thousands of miles away, Jack was still saving her ass. If Terra was in a better mind she would be focusing on that. 

But Terra was instead listening to echoes of screams and yells, of people blaming her to their murder, of the innocent people she had seen and even strangers that she had not. Terra heard their screams as clearly as she felt wind on her cheek and snow seeping through her skirt.

_ “...think the clouds are clogging up my brain _ .” She pressed her palm to her head. Terra let out a hissed breath, her teeth clenching from pain. Her head kept pounding and pounding. Space travel without a capsule, perhaps? A strange form of shock from being the victim of a flash mob? Hard to say.

She could use a would-be doctor to tell her...but Martha had...she was on the...right? She had gotten away, right?

Terra had to find out. She pushed herself onto her knees- ignoring her joints screaming with the voices of the damned. She ignored the ghosts that kept appearing in the corner of her eyes. The mission was clear: make sure Martha was alive. Everything else was secondary.

“ _ Like the weather drain, same as the tears on my face.” _ Terra was shivering and shaking. She walked in the direction of the north. The blurry object was that direction, it was Terra’s best bet.  _ “And I’m stuck up in the storm eye. I’ll guess I’ll be alright.” _

Another strong biting wind came past her. This time heavier. She shivered again, wrapping her arms around her chest.

_ “Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh.” _ Terra panted, blowing out deep breaths. She marched through the thick snow, squinting to make out the shape.  _ “Then it hits me like oh, oh, oh.” _

She sneezed. When she took a breath to recover, she tasted something very sinister on her tongue. Her whole body stopped moving, stuck on her next step.

The girl had frozen stiff. “... _ oh no.” _

The date was November 18, 2008.

And the blurry object? A sign that said  _ ‘Welcome to Barrow!’ _

==TTW==

Everything made sense, all of a sudden. Terra could see it in perfect clarity.

She hadn’t been freed at all. Yes. Thirty years ago, Lawrence Latshaw tried and failed to free Terra from her dark side. Instead his spell trapped Terra in a dream world where Terra was freed. In actuality her dark side was still reigning free on Earth.

Terra had thought everything was going too well. Her life had been so happy. She should have known it was a lie when she met her sister barely a month after escaping  _ 30 Days of Night. _

After the Japan incident, Terra had snapped whatever control that spell had. Now she was right back where she started: the soon to be dark town of Barrow, Alaska. Terra could see it all so clearly. 

Terra knew her life was cursed. She just never imagined it was cursed _ like this _ .

Though she had seen through the delusion, Terra couldn’t risk her dark side finding out. Terra would have to find access out of Barrow, before the sun set. If she remembered correctly, the last flight was leaving soon. In another life, she had watched it fly overhead while breaking into the electrical building. If Terra missed that plane, she would be in town for the slaughter again.

_ (For the record, Terra was completely wrong. She was definitely in the Doctor Who universe, with two hearts beating in her chest, with a brain that gave her the ability to know the date with just a taste of the air, and not in a curse made up by her dark side. _

_ However- she was right about that plane. There were only two safe ways out of Barrow: plane, or sled-dogs. Terra would be too tempted to pet those hard working good puppers, so a plane was the safest bet.) _

Terra walked through the streets she hadn’t seen in fifty years. Her eyes wandered to various corners of streets, of people walking on the sidewalks and driving in their cars. The snow had never been so white here. People hadn’t walked this slow. These faces were so strange to her. Fifty years in her memory, it would make sense she couldn’t remember them all on the spot. They were bloodier last time too. The town was quiet- that she remembered all too well.

Funny thing, that. It had been quiet a lot more than one would think. When people died in Barrow during her vampiric days, they died in large groups in quick bursts. The kind of violence that you could miss if you weren’t paying attention- too drunk on blood to even care about the passage of time. When you lived forever, did you even need to keep track?

Terra stopped at an intersection. The cars were moving to avoid hitting her. Though none of them were aware of that. Her abilities were keeping people from noticing she existed.

Down the street, Terra was seeing a pile of smoldering corpses. She remembered their faces. She had broken bread with them. Some had asked questions about the Doctor, some had been closer to Martha than to Terra. Very few had their throats cut open, if any at all. These were fresh bodies.

Terra had known her vampiric self to work in many painful ways. Barbeque had been a rare delicacy- her dark side had liked her meat afraid and crispy.

_ “And all that wind that swept me off my feet got me flying til I’m crying and I’m down on my knees.” _ Terra tried to take her mind off the pile of the dead. She figured her dark side was toying with her again.  _ “That’s what Dorothy was afraid of, the sneaky tornado. Oh, oh oh.” _

Sometimes the only way out is through. Terra resolved herself, continuing her path through the traffic that drove around her.

Melting snow was crushed under her boot, shifting her footing to something uneven. Terra refused to let herself waiver. If this was a nightmare, then Terra wouldn’t give it the satisfaction.

_ “There’s no place like home.”  _ She shuddered from the cold, slipping her hands into her skirt pockets.  _ “Home. I’m boarding up the windows locking up my heart/ It’s like every time the wind blows, I feel it tearing us apart.” _

The smell of them hit her first. These bodies were new. As Terra walked through the pile, she heard them moaning and groaning. She soldiered on.  _ Martha needed her. Martha needed her. _ That one thought was a driving force. A mantra compelling her to act, her own personalized drum beats sounding to the beating of Martha’s steps.

_ “Every time he smiles I let him in again.”  _ Terra didn’t pause when her foot hit someone’s hand. They weren’t real. They were illusions made by her dark side’s curse. She should have felt the heat from the dying flames- instead there was only the Alaskian cold. Terra’s fear had made them. She wouldn’t let her dark side take advantage of that. “ _ Everything is fine when you’re standing in the eye of the hurricane.” _

All these bodies around her were made by her own actions. Terra could no sooner blame her dark side for these actions, then a person could blame a boat for reacting to strong winds. There were plenty of other choices. Terra just always picked the bad ones.

==TTW==

The sun was going to set soon. Another hour or two, then darkness for an endless time.

Terra would not give her dark side victory. She had been fighting that evil all her life, she would not give in now. She was so close. Freedom would be her’s. There was a plane to catch.

She arrived at the tarmac. The airport here was smaller than she remembered. Paying it little mind, she walked towards the one plane ready to take off. Nobody paid her any mind. Her powers were still active- still working strong in a fight/flight instinct. Literally, in this case.  _ Time to fly away... _

The bodies had followed her out here. Burning, screaming bodies that belonged in a B-rate horror film that was added to streaming services because theatres wouldn’t take it. Amongst them, Terra was able to make out the long decaying corpses of the last Barrow folk she met. 

Their screams were still fresh in her mind. Their screams for life- for salvation- for sunshine. Her dark side had given them none. Her powers had given even less. 

_ “Here comes the sun, here comes the rain, standing in the eye of the hurricane. Here comes the sun, here comes the rain, standing in the eye of the hurricane.”  _ Terra approached the airplane.

The pilot was already in their seat. They were preparing for takeoff. The pilot didn’t notice Terra climbing into the plane. Well they noticed a little- just not enough to care.

_ It’s like I know you’re there but I don’t  _ want _ to know. _

Terra settled herself against the passenger seat. Finally, a chance to relax. Room to  _ breathe. _

“...okay Control, I’m ready to fly.” The pilot informed, happily flipping switches.

_ “Hold on there- 278. We just got a no fly order.” _

“From who?”

_ “Who else? Our lord and master.” _

Terra tensed.

The pilot shifted in their seat. “Whoa-k...but- I gotta fly out. If we miss the-”

_ “I know. But, we gotta go with it.” _ The Control replied.  _ “The skies aren’t exactly safe with  _

The pilot sighed, starting up the process to stop the plane.

Terra sat up, grabbing the pilot by the neck. She made sure her fingers pressed just enough onto their neck. The pilot choked on a gasp.

“No.” She ordered.

The pilot copied her.

“Fly this plane.” She ordered again. The pilot repeated her, ignoring the confused calls from Control. “I’ll take care of the Toclafane. You keep this bird in the sky.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“ _ 278 what’s going on?!” _

“I’m keeping this bird in the sky.” The pilot replied. They drove the plane across the tarmac. It went straight through the burning bloodless pile of corpses. Terra kept her grip on the pilot’s neck, her fingers shaking from the strain. 

_ “I’m flopping on my bed like a flying squirrel like a little girl hurt by the big bad world. _ ” Terra watched the skyline, keeping a lookout for any bots.  _ “Yeah it’s twisting up my insides. Can’t hide it on the outside. Oh. Oh, oh.” _

_ “Wait- what’s the voice? Pilot, respond!” _

The pilot did not.

Terra leaned back from the pilot. In her panic, her breath was speeding up. Every breath had her tasting  _ barbeque _ .

_ “Yeah it hits me like-” _ Terra opened her Bag. She started pulling out various pieces of tech that she could use. The device she had in mind would need to be ready  _ fast _ . “ _ Oh, oh no.” _

The pilot flipped switches. The plane was kept up towards an incline, ignoring the various demands from the ground for the pilot to land. Terra was working fast- scarily fast.

_ “278 you need to come back down!”  _ Control yelled.  _ “We heard what happened. The Master burned up Japan!” _

Terra dropped a piece, dropping on the metal floor. Screams replaced the plane’s engine sounds. Her head was pounding as she worked. With shaking hands, she picked up the fallen piece.

_ “They- they’re saying Terra Johnson is dead!” _

_ “And that’s when you hold me, you hold me. You tell me that you know me, I’ll never be lonely.”  _ Terra held up the nearly device- a remote control. She pulled out a screwdriver to finish it.  _ “Say we made it through the storm now, but I’m still on the lookout. Oh, oh oh. The air’s getting cold- cold.” _

The pilot shut off the comms. 

“Shit-” Terra pushed herself back against the seat. Her hands shook again. Dead. Everyone thought she was dead. Martha had thought she was dead. The Doctor thought she was dead. Did Jack think so? Did her sister?

She was still alive. She just had to get out of her dark side’s created nightmare. Once she was free, Terra could...could...Author what would she do? None of this was real- Terra was just deluding herself. 

Her dark side had gotten stronger. Terra had almost started to believe the lie. Wouldn’t that have been a tragedy? Working in nightmare realms were always so interesting.

_ “I’m boarding up the windows locking up my heart. It’s like every time the wind blows I feel it tearing us apart.” _ Terra held up the remote. She started working on the signal from it.  _ “Every time he smiles I let him in again. Everything is fine when you’re standing in the eye of the hurricane.” _

“Ma’am?” The pilot spoke up. Terra glanced at him. “We’ve got company up ahead.”

Terra looked through the windshield. The sun was starting to set, reflecting orange lights from the oncoming Toclafane bots.

Ah, Terra could work with those. 

She started to sing the chorus. The pilot continued to fly in a straight line. Terra used the remote, directing a code to them. They believed the plane as one of them.

Or so it seemed.

The remote sparked and fizzled in her hands. Terra grunted, dropping the remote to her side. 

“Damn it.” Terra shuddered. She grabbed her head, threaded her fingers in the ginger strands. “ _ Damn it!” _

They...they were  _ cruel _ . Her dark side was being so  _ clever _ .

Terra would have to improvise.

She sat up, gripping the pilot’s seat. She stared out the windshield.

Terra exhaled through clenched teeth. “ _ Go to sleep _ -” The plane started to dip. “Not you!” The plane straightened out. “Okay...okay. Focus. Have to focus... _ cats as nestled in bed, curled by the sheep. From where you fly,  _ go the fuck to sleep.”

The Toclafane zooming towards the plane came to a stop. Terra took a breath. The pilot continued on. She repeated the phrase over and over again. 

Long after the sun had set.

==TTW==

The plane landed in Canada. Terra may have had a hand in that. In the sky, they had gone unnoticed by the Toclafane. Terra was mentally exhausted at the end.

The nightmare bodies had followed her there too. Terra had thought they would go away with distance from Barrow. Apparently, her nightmares were stubborn today. 

As she climbed out of the plane, people  _ noticed _ . Terra wasn’t entirely in the moment. She saw that man-  _ Ouga Tabata _ , the name came to her- the guy that attacked her in the first place. She wasn’t able to look past him.

Couldn’t he have just stayed behind? Can’t she be allowed to move on? It was an accident. She shouldn’t be followed around by it.

Terra came back to clarity at a table. Someone had pushed a warm mug into her hands. She was inside a building. Tabata was sitting across from her, glaring hatefully. She wondered what had shocked her back to normality.

Ah. The mug was full of coffee.

She rested it onto the table. “I don’t like coffee.”

Her voice got the attention of everyone else in the room. They turned to her, all smiles and delight. Terra didn’t trust it. She didn’t trust a lot of things lately. She could hear their voices talking to her, asking so many questions. Even if she was in a state to answer them, she wouldn’t.

At one point someone tried to put the coffee back in her hand. Terra moves the mug further away from her, practically in front of Tabata’s vengeful spirit. Had she made a Grudge ghost? She hoped not. Those were inconvenient.

“You don’t wanna see me on coffee.” Terra advised. “I’ve not tried the drink yet. Still, I know I’m one of those people that turns manic on coffee.”

The people around her laughed. There was a time Terra welcomed laughter. There was an empty space beside her that showed the problem.

_ There’s a monster standing where you should be _

_ So I’ll paint you wings _

_ And I’ll set you free _

“I need to get moving again.” Terra told her audience. “Catch up with Martha.”

“Oh sure, sure.” Someone replied. They beamed at Terra. “Sorry for holding you up. It’s just- everybody thought you were dead. Kinda bummed us out for a while.”

_ Sorry you got depressed. I killed hundreds of thousands of people that will come back in six months. _

Terra didn’t say that. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, you’re the one who’s gonna kill the Master.”

Terra looked to Tabata. The hopefully-not-a-Grudge glared at Terra like she’s killed his mother. Which might not be too far off, actually. “Wanna hear a story of why I’m gonna do it?”

As always, the crowd leaned in.

Terra told her story. Tabata at her side refusing to give her any rest.

==TTW==

The people of Canada were so heartbreakingly nice. Terra has thought it was a joke. Like, an almost insulting joke cause she only heard it from Americans so it had to be kinda mean. But  _ holy fucking shit  _ they were actually  _ nicer _ than the jokes. Except the pilot- they had been more than a little annoyed, until Terra admitted she just used them for an escape route. 

She had been in Canada for a week. She was constantly bouncing from place to place. To the people, it was better to keep Terra hidden from the Toclafane and the soldiers and anything Master related. Terra still kept an ear out for anything to do with her fellow Earth wanderer. 

At the end of her surprise vacation, Terra was on her radio. It needed repairs after being...well...she had needed parts.

_ (Unbeknownst to her, earlier in the week the Master had been in a very important meeting. Today was the day he acted.) _

Terra was hoping for a message about her friends. The Rebellion folk had kept chatter quiet as rumors of her death became greatly exaggerated. Terra didn’t mind. She wanted a dramatic entrance later anyway.

Yeah she should’ve been resting. That was hard. Each time she got some rest, Tabata screamed until Terra woke up. Stupid ghostly alarm clocks.

_ When would this nightmare end? Why couldn’t she wake up? What would it take?! _

Terra didn’t wait long for the answer. 

As she had finished her repairs to the radio, a broadcast was already playing. 

_ “...I guess that answers that. I’ll be hearing from you soon, Miss Johnson.” _

Terra just about dropped the radio. Everyone around her had jumped back. They hadn’t expected to hear the Master’s voice.

_ “Enjoy the show. Kids, go burn them down!” _

The message ended. Terra started fiddling with the dials, trying to get something to play. She had to know what he was burning. Who had she condemned to death this time?

The radio shrieked. A loud feedback coming out from it. Terra dropped the radio on a table, jumping back from it. Now she was stressed  _ and  _ annoyed. The radio kept making that loud feedback sound. Terra turned it off, letting out a heavy frustrated sigh. She ran her fingers in her hair. It made it easier to forget Tabata’s hate filled eyes glaring from her back.

_ ‘You killed them.’ _ Tabata hissed.

_ Don’t give him the power. _ Terra told herself.  _ Don’t give him the power. _

_ ‘They’re going to die because of you’ _

_ Don’t give him the power. _

Terra picked up the radio. If she wanted to hear anything, she would have to repair it. Fast too.

A man walked up to her. “Miss Johnson?”

“Talk fast.” Terra used a screwdriver to pop the side open. She started twisting about the wires and mechanical parts.

“We found out where Mr Saxon targeted.” The man replied.

“Talk faster.” Terra instructed.

“It was a state in the US.” The man explained. Terra kept working. Martha was in the Southern Hemisphere. She wasn’t anywhere in the States yet. “We just...don’t get it. It’s just South Carolina.” The screwdriver stopped. “There’s been no sign of anything from there. No rebellions, no sign of Martha there, according to the reports even Saxon didn’t give a reason to it besides  _ ‘you would know’ _ ...ma’am?”

Terra continued to stare at him. “Say psych right now.”

“Ma’am?” The man asked.

“Not- not there. Please tell me he didn’t do it there.” Terra shook her head. She lowered the radio to her lap.

_ ‘You killed them.’ _

“You got people there?” The man asked.

_ ‘They’re dead because of you.’ _

Without waiting to reply, she grabbed her Bag. 

==TTW==

Her town had been so beautiful to look at. There was the Ravenal bridge, which when she stood on it she could feel a breeze. She could see Fort Sumter, where she had walked up the steps towards cannons on the side.

She could see a- well she always called it the paper factory. It smelled like farts when driving past it, which never failed to both disgust and entertain her brothers. Her favorite bookstore stood next to her favorite restaurant. There was a park she would play in at recesses.

She could see the remains of those bridges. She could see the remains of that park. In the breeze, she smelled not an ocean but ash.

_ Where is it, Doctor? _

_ It burnt. _

This place had been her home.

Now it was nothing but ash. 

Terra wondered if this would be the exception needed to cry. Tabata didn’t seem to think so, hissing at her shoulder like a wet cat. Terra sank to the ground, her knees curled to her chest. The manipulator smoldered on her wrist, so she yanked it off. She stuffed it into her Bag, ignoring the building tears. 

“City got fucked.”

Terra snorted, pushing her face into her legs. Somebody sat down beside her. Intent on being rude, Terra ignored her.

“Like really, this shithole’s never looked so bad.”

_ It’s a nightmare. This has all been one big nightmare made by my dark side. That’s the only explanation. _

“Hey look. Your old school finally went to hell.”

Terra glared at her sister. The assassin was older now. She was taller, an older feel to her face. Maybe it was the skintight black suit that added height- or that Terra was still on the ashy dirt while Darcy was standing. The eyes were comfortingly the same. The hair was too. Straight black hair, shining dark purple eyes.

Darcy showed no effect of being glared at. She shook it off- if it even hit her at all. “Wanna go dance in the ashes? If the boots get fucked, I know a place to wash ‘em.”

Terra continued to glare.  _ You don’t exist. You can’t exist. My dark side tricked me into thinking I met you.  _

“I’ve waited for the conversation for so many years, and you’re not even gonna reply? Fuck face.” Darcy noticed the silence. “Hey. On a scale. How Orange are you right now?”

Terra shook her head, letting some of her hair fall on the side of her face.

Darcy hummed, laughing. “Good point. I meant in your eyes, genius.”

“Mama said don’t talk to delusions.”

“We’re listening to what Mrs Spencer says?” Darcy asked. She clutched her chest, miming a heart attack. “ _ Shia surprise!” _

Terra rolled her eyes.

“Hey, bitchface, I think you cracked.” Darcy waves her hand out to the land where Terra remembered growing up. “The delusion is sinking in. How long have you been seeing them in your head?”

“...the ghosts?”

Darcy nodded.

Terra shifted. “...since Japan.”

Darcy hummed. She plopped down at Terra’s side. “Did you make a Grudge?”

“No! I don’t know. Fuck you.”

“It’s not even Kayako. Couldn’t you make a fun Grudge?”

“I literally hate you.”

“Make it canon if you’re gonna do it!” Darcy continued to complain. “I mean, Kayako is the cool part. She’s what makes it a Grudge. Unless you somehow magically got rid of that part, and got a new Grudge guy, but it’s disappointing is all.”

“Right now, the thing I’m haunted by is  _ you _ .” Terra snapped.

Her sister just had that smug fucking grin. “You’re talking to a delusion.”

“ _ Curses _ !” She slapped her hands over her ears, trying to keep Darcy’s voice out.

Her sister pried her hands free. Gone was the smile. Instead she glared into Terra’s eyes. She forced eye contact. Terra couldn’t look away- Darcy moved her head back every time. Even when Terra closed her eyes, her sister just bit her hand.

Her nightmares were more vivid.

“Go away!” Terra snapped. “Can’t you just leave me alone?”

“When have I ever?” Darcy replied. “Get yourself together. There’s a job to do, and you’re having a pity party.”

Terra shook her head. “Just a bad dream...just a bad dream... _ it was only just a dream, so I travel back down that road-” _

“It’s not a dream. All of this is really happening.” Darcy argued. She sounded oddly considerate...dare even empathic to her sister’s pain? That’s not right. Darcy has never shown empathy in her life. 

“You don’t exist. You’re acting out of character.” Terra denied. “Darcy never acted like this. You’re just trying to trick me into the trap. To believe the lie! I won’t! Not again!”

Darcy huffed. She gripped tighter on her sister’s head. “Your mind is not so fucked up that it came up with  _ me _ !” She snapped.

Terra shuddered, curling her fingers over and over. The nails were too short to really scratch at Darcy’s hands. 

Darcy held tighter to her head. She gave her sister a hard shake. “You aren’t this insane. This is real. I exist, mother effer.”

“She’s tricking me.” Terra denied. “I thought I got away...but I was right back in Barrow. I never left. I’m still there- she’s just being a sadistic bitch!”

“There aren’t enough therapists in the world to pick that apart.” Darcy huffed to herself. She spoke to her sister. “You went through something  _ fucked up.  _ Your mind couldn’t cope, so it relapsed itself back to the last fucked up thing that happened. Just another PTSD thing for you. Okay? That’s all it is. Just a very realistic memory playing out. It’s not real.”

“Yeah. Exactly. You aren’t real.” Terra stressed.

Darcy gave up on being nice. She reeled her hand back, slapping her sister on the face.  _ Hard _ . The Time Lady was knocked to the ground. Piles of ash moved up in the air, flying around Terra as they fell back down.

“Get yourself together!” Darcy smacked her sister again with each word- Edna Mode style. “This is not an illusion. This is not a nightmare. You didn’t think this us. Not even at her darkest did she ever think about burning it all down. She would’ve wanted them to  _ bleed. _ Does it look like your family bled to death?”

Terra was shuddering in the ashes.

“Answer me!” Darcy demanded.

“They weren’t...drained...” Terra conceded.

“Keep going.” Darcy ordered.

Terra swallowed. “They...were burnt.”

“Were they?” Darcy asked. “Because if it’s your dark side driving the wheel, then she couldn’t have gone to your house.” Terra opened her mouth, stuttering for an argument. “If she can’t go Home, and she’s still in your head, then you’re not back Home.”

Terra shook her head.

“No- no. You know I’m right.” Darcy stated. “So. Get back on your feet. There’s work to do, and I’ll be damned if I finish my job before you finish your’s. Got it?”

Terra nodded.

“Good.” Darcy glanced to their side. She met the eyes of Tabata. “Now _ fuck off.” _ Her purple eyes glowed, shining through the ashy gray of the sky.

Tabata faded.

Darcy held out her hand.

Terra grabbed the hand, hesitant but like if she let go she would die. Darcy pulled her to her feet, giving Terra a minute to steady herself.

“Hey. Remember that argument you and I were having before you came back? For season 2?” Darcy asked.

Terra paused a moment. She was still cautiously looking around, expecting a blood drained corpse or another burning victim from Japan to appear. 

“It was- you were kinkshaming me about Smaugbo.” Darcy recalled.

“He’s a dragon, and he’s a canonically three foot tall man.” Terra argued, sounding exhausted. The statement had come out on reflex. Just something to disagree with Darcy’s opinions.

“It was Smaug!lock. Everything was proportioned.” Darcy excused with a wave of her hand. “But you remember it. So, I ask...ready to walk in Middle Earth?”

Terra eyed her sister with caution.

==TTW==

Martha heard the reports about Terra. She had to hold out hope that her friend had made it out. Even if it didn’t seem possible, as everything had been...it had looked bad. Martha had seen Terra come out from worse. 

If that meant that the only way Terra could’ve saved herself was by changing again...Martha wouldn’t mind. Just as long as Terra was okay.

Right now, she was following Terra’s plan for transit. Martha had been able to work much faster in these countries than originally planned. With Japan and an American state in flames, people were latching onto any plan to get rid of the Master.

Yeah they all believed that Terra was the one to kill the Master. Many of them even thought the prayers for the Doctor would be how Terra would kill the Master. Martha encouraged it. Even though the Doctor hadn’t told them to do that...in fact quite the opposite...Terra had never really followed that rule. And Martha trusted Terra in getting rid of the Master. For whatever worked. 

Besides. There wasn’t a chance that Terra wouldn’t  _ try _ to kill him.

Martha was being transported by boat to New Zealand. They were still the safest way to get around. It’s not like anyone could get a plane in the air after the Master’s no-fly order. 

The boat had reached port with no trouble. Martha had gotten good at hiding, at staying quiet. (She wasn’t going to say anything negative about Terra- Martha desperately wanted to have an afternoon of Radio-Terra. It would be better than this silence) The country of New Zealand was very beautiful, from Martha very first step.

A Rebellion member had told her that Martha would be passed over to their representative on a van. Together, they would take her to the other side of the country to her next transport.

The door to the van opened. Martha climbed inside. The driver and passenger were already in a conversation.

“-It still doesn’t make sense right?”

“I mean, if he’s the size of an Elf it would still be big-”

“Yeah! But like- there has to be a limit.”

“No. Smaug!lock is actually fine. As long as he’s no dragon, Bilbo could take it.”

“Her vulgarity is spreading.” Terra leaned away from the driver. She turned to a shocked Martha. “Oh hey Martha. That’s something you need to remember about Carl, Martha. She’s a vulgar maniac. Never talk to her about anything. She actually started arguing with me about how dragons can shrink-”

“You’re alive!”

The Time Lady gave Martha a beaming curl of the lips. She climbed out of the seat, tumbling over to a now crying Martha. 

Martha pulled Terra into a tight hug. She squeezed until she could feel the alien’s heartbeat against her arms, until she heard Terra’s laugh in her ears, until she could smell the shampoo that Terra always used, until she was certain that the fabric under her fingers was that same pink and white that Terra had kept asking Martha to judge.

“Oh god, you’re alive.” Martha exhaled, relieved at long last.

Terra just giggled.

“I can’t believe it-” Martha pulled back from the hug. She held Terra’s shoulders. “Terra, are you alright?”

Terra glanced to the passenger seat before smiling warmly at Terra. “Dearie, I’ve just gone insane. Of course I’m alright.”

Martha blinked in confusion.

Terra offered no explanation. Instead she reclined back in her seat.  _ “Blunt the knives, bend the forks, smash the bottle and burn the corks...” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to give Terra just...the worst week. It’ll be fine- they’ll all be alive again in two chapters.  
> Which means this story is almost over...I’m almost not ready to let it go. I’ve been excited about this fic for years. That it’s almost over hurts. Arguably, it hurts more for me than for Terra.


	16. She Used To Be Mine

“Behold, our lady in green!” Terra cheered, throwing her arm out towards the sea. “‘ _ Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ Cause this land is your land, this land is my land. From the California, to the New York Island, from the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me!” _

Martha smiled with her friend. Together they looked out towards New York City. It looked so different than the last time Martha saw it. Well given that it had been eighty years ago that made sense.

Ever since Martha reunited with Terra in New Zealand, the Time Lady seemed more off kilter. 

Terra had been guiding Martha through the American side of the planet. She was happy to show off the towns and mountains in South America, along with the many spicy dishes they found along the way. This Terra apparently liked spicy food. Martha was certain her taste buds had burned off somewhere in Brazil.

As they got closer and closer to the America’s, Terra was less on edge. Every reaction that Martha expected- irritability, restlessness, inflamed temper- Terra would react the exact opposite. It didn’t make any sense. Sometimes, in the past five months, the closer they got to something scary the more likely Terra was to laugh.

When Martha asked, Terra blamed those modern day videogames.  _ ‘They’re desentizing us to violence. Our children are being corrupted by it, Martha Jones. It is  _ not _ pretty. But those flowers are!’ _

Not exactly great.

Terra had taken on big missions too. Before, they had worked together on collecting the  _ ‘serums’ _ for the four-part Time Lord killing gun. Once they reached the Americas, Terra had gone for the  _ ‘fourth’ _ by herself. Martha was skeptical about that.

Martha has no clue what was actually in these things, though Terra had called them just packets of Kool-Aid. Nor did Martha understand why Terra made such a big mess of San Diego when she left. If they were trying so hard to hide, why did Terra make a big show of herself in every town? It wasn’t making any sense.

Still. Martha was happy to see the city of New York. “It’s a sight for sore eyes.”

Terra laughed in agreement. She started skipping happy circles around Martha. “It’s great, it’s grand, I miss this land.” She stopped skipping to hug Martha. “You’re going to love it! More than the other New York’s, I promise!”

==TTW==

“This place is godless travesty.” Terra stated, glaring coldly at the building.

Martha rolled her eyes. James- the member of the Rebellion contact in New York- turned to Martha. “Not that she’s wrong, but why?”

Martha shook her head. “Don’t ask.”

The American seemed so curious about asking anyway. “Hey. What’s wrong with the place?” He asked Terra.

She huffed, crossing her arms while still glaring at the store. “There’s no pizza at this store.”

James blinked. “It’s a sandwich store.”

“The city of New York defines a sandwich as  _ ‘made on bread or on bagels, rolls, pitas, wraps, or otherwise and regardless of filling of the number of layers’. _ Pizza counts as that!” Terra argued.

James hummed. “Does it? Huh.”

Martha nodded. “Told you.”

Terra continued to pout as they walked through the sandwich shop. James walked them up the staircase, to a small apartment cleaned out for meetings rather than a living space. Once there, Terra flopped down on the ground.

Martha grabbed her hand, dragging Terra back to her feet. Clearly, Martha was used to this routine. Terra beamed at James.

“So...where to first? I was thinking we hit MOMA first.” Terra explained. “Then Times Square, Central Park, there’s a cemetery I wanna visit for personal stuff, and then I’d like to visit an old showgirl-”

“Sorry, Johnson, there’s no time for touristy shit.” James replied. “Maybe next time.”

Terra just grinned. “Genius!” She looked at Martha. “Next time. Proper New York. You  _ will  _ see it.”

“Sure.” Martha replied. She turned to James. “Where  _ are  _ we going?”

“That’s just it.” James began. He held up a folder, handing it to Terra. Terra flipped it open. Martha read over her shoulder. “You’re needed in two different parts of the city. We heard about the weapon you were building, and the story you’re spreading. People are cut off just outside of town, so one of you will have to personally go. The weapon plans are in VOR headquarters in-”

“In  _ what _ headquarters?” Terra asked, surprised.

“VOR, I’ve heard of it-” Martha began.

“Then why are you so calm?” Terra asked, becoming stressed.

“-that’s the search engine, yeah?” Martha asked James.

“It is.” James confirmed. “They picked New York for their American HQ. Not that it matters much lately. Still, they’ve gotta have those plans at VOR.”

“ _ What is happening.”  _ Terra handed the folder to Martha. “I’m going to...headquarters. Martha you spread the word.”

“Terra I’m not sure-”

“Oh hell no, I’m going. I’m  _ definitely  _ going to  _ that _ .” Terra insisted. “You just have to tell everyone about the Doctor, okay?”

James nodded. He walked over to a wall in the apartment, pulling off the vent lid. From it he pulled a duffle bag.

Martha was still unsure. “Terra, why are the weapon plans in VOR?”

Terra blinked at Martha. She internally sighed. “Please stop calling it that. I can’t. My brain cannot handle that.”

“You’re the one that wanted to call it a  _ weapon. _ ” Martha reminded her. 

Terra blinked again, expression more like someone internally screaming. “...yeah the weapon plans are at the... _ search engine. _ ”

“The Doctor didn’t tell us to get a gun.” Martha reminded her.

“Appearances matter, Martha.” Terra countered. “A rumor went around the soldiers that our gun is missing two parts. One a Time Lord killing chemical, the other a stronger structure- something that could stand up against his laser sonic. If James says the plans for a stronger gun are at vore HQ-  _ gah _ \- then that’s where I have to go.”

That. Things like  _ that.  _ Every dangerous mission, Terra took for herself. Martha was always delegated to spreading the Doctor’s story. Terra loved telling it, people loved hearing it from her too. Martha was willing to take the more dangerous tasks. Martha had done it after Japan.

It would only take one mission gone wrong for Terra not to come back. That loss wouldn’t be easy a third time. 

“I’m coming with you.” Martha insisted.

Terra’s eyes widened, her eyebrows going up. “What? No. I’ve got it.”

James walked up. He held up the duffle. “Here’s everything you should need.”

Martha grabbed the duffle. Without looking away from Terra, Martha pulled the duffle on her shoulder. “Let’s get going.”

Terra shook her head. “No. We need to cover enough ground-”

“Then my going with you will double our speed.” Martha countered.

Terra was grinding her teeth. “I’m not taking you to  _ vore headquarters.” _

“Too bad.” Martha started towards the door. “Let’s get going.”

Terra sighed to the sounds of Martha’s departing footsteps. James put a hand on Terra’s shoulder. The Time Lady tensed.

“You’ve got it bad, haven’t you?” James asked her. Terra nodded, pitifully. James patted her shoulder. “You’ll get worse.”

“I know.” Terra whined.

“You wouldn’t change it though.”

“Not for anything.”

“Same for me and my friend, Tim.” James replied with a happy sigh. “He’s a pain in my ass. I’ll probably be crushing on him forever.”

Terra shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “Yeah...us Americans just love the Brits, huh?” She started walking in Martha’s direction. “Give Tim my love.”

“Never.” James joked, before following.

==TTW==

James was a taxi driver. That gave him a lot more leeway in the chaotic city of New York City. Terra was grateful for it. It kept her from having to hotwire a car. James laughed when she said that. Martha just snorted. She’d watched Terra hotwire a dozen cars- it had lost it’s appeal.

The taxi pulled up a block away from the HQ. Martha checked again for her TARDIS key, while Terra adjusted the Bag on her shoulder. Martha refused to hand over the duffle bag. That was fine. Terra could adapt.

“So. You’ve got one hour.” James explained. “Our guy inside said the information was on the seventh floor.”

Terra nodded. “Okay. What am I looking for?”

“We couldn’t manage to find a secure enough line, so we don’t have his name. We could get his face.” James held up his phone, showing a picture. Terra and Martha saw a picture of a brown skinned man, with brushed back black hair in a work casual suit. “He can get you to the plans.”

“Why couldn’t he just get them himself, then give them to me?” Terra asked.

“Well he said that the plans are under a special lock. He couldn’t get them out of the building without setting off a dozen alarms.” James answered. “So if you go in-”

“We can avoid detection the same way we have for months. We’re the only two people on the planet that can.” Terra reasoned. “Makes sense.”

Martha nudged her arm. “You ready?”

“Born ready, baby.” Terra joked. Then her smile fell. “Not that I’m calling you baby- I meant- that came way too fast. Um. Uh-”

But Martha was already out the door. Terra groaned in dismay.

“I was wrong.” James noted. “You’re worse than me.”

“Can it, get away driver.” Terra climbed out after Martha. James just laughed.

Martha led Terra towards the building. Terra was retying her bowtie. The two were able to walk in seamlessly behind another employee. Terra lowered her arms to her side, trying to appear nonchalant. She nudged Martha’s side.

“Yeah?” Martha asked, looking for the elevator. “Do you see the lift?”

“This way.” Terra went for Martha’s hand, hesitating on the last moment. She tried for the wrist, that choice feeling awkward too. 

“Oh I see it.” Martha walked off towards it.

Terra lowered her hand. Another chance sorely missed...she dutifully followed after Martha. The elevators required a keypass to reach the upper floors. Martha opened the duffle bag, pulling out a key card. A scan had them approved.

A quick ride in the elevator had them on their desired floor. The doors opened. Terra blocked Martha from stepping out. She peeled her head out, making sure the coast was clear before they walked out.

Martha followed Terra out. The Time Lady kept quiet on her feet, her pink boots not even squeaking on the floor. “Don’t make a scene.”

“Don’t make a sound.” Terra agreed. “In a building like this, employees will be on high alert. No chances.”

Martha nodded in agreement. 

“ _ We must be swift as a coursing river.” _ Terra sang softly, a whisper of a whisper. She kept guiding Martha down the hallway, searching for their point of contact. “ _ With all the force of a great typhoon. All the strength of a raging fire-” _

“ _ Mysterious as the dark side of the moon _ !” Someone sang. 

Terra whirled around to it. Martha too. To Martha’s comfort, the singer was their contact. The man stood in a door frame, black hair flopping on his head. 

“Singing broke the filter?” Martha asked Terra.

Terra said nothing. Her cheeks were going a bit pink though. “Who are you? They never gave us your name.”

“Oh.” He answered, grinning. He was talking in an British accent- Martha hadn’t expected to hear one for a while yet.

“Yes. It’s me. Terra Johnson. This is the lovely Martha Jones. Who are you?”

“Oh.” He introduced, holding up his hand. “Agent O, actually.”

“You don’t look like an Ostrich, or an Ocelot.” Terra noted. Martha closed her eyes, sighing.

“I’m with MI6.” O explained. 

That surprised Martha. “Ah! That explains it.” Terra took O’s hand, shaking it. She had her face in a professional expression, in contrast to her next sentence. “They have a cool acronym. Why O?”

“It’s a little joke. Every time the boss would see me, he’d go  _ ‘oh god _ !’ So, that became my name.” O explained.

“Marvelous. An inside joke for a name.” Terra praised, thinking about her own name meaning ‘earth’ when she was an alien. Or calling her sister a homicidal llama. 

“What’s MI6 doing here?” Martha asked.

“Helping with the Rebellion of course.” O replied. He gave a kind smile to the Time Lady. “We should get moving. We don’t have time for pleasantries, after all.”

The two women agreed.

O just kept grinning.

==TTW==

O had an office. It was a good office. Probably not his, or his but under a fake name. Terra liked it. There was a little plant. Definitely not the kind to turn giant and bloodthirsty.

_ (She would never admit being the slightest bit disappointed by that _ )

O walked over to his desk. It was covered in folders and papers, all of it well used with crinkles to prove it. “When they told me Terra Johnson needed something from VOR-” Terra winced. “-I was ecstatic! I don’t meet many celebrities.”

“I’m not a celebrity.” Terra replied. “Just someone trying to save the world.”

O pointed at her. “Everyone knows about you because of it. That’s the definition of famous. Right?” He directed the last bit to Martha. 

Martha nodded. They were so close. Just about everyone on the planet knew about the Doctor, and his two companions. More than that, sometimes Martha was  _ recognized.  _ Dare she say,  _ revered _ . She didn’t like that too much. It was just another price to stopping the Master. Everyone saw her and Terra as some kind of saviors. The Doctor would be the real one saving the day.

O pulled out the chair at the desk, typing away at the computer. “They told you my issue, yes?”

“You can’t get them cause they’re under a special lock.” Terra answered. “You can’t get them out, I can.”

“Yep.” He pulled up a file from the computer. “It’s down the hall in R&D. You can get access?”

“Can Jesus swim on land?”

Martha sighed, embarrassed. “Sorry. She means yes...I think.”

“No, I get it.” O replied. “He can walk on water, so why can’t he swim on land?”

Martha blinked. She wasn’t used to people understanding Terra’s...quirkiness. Translating was Martha’s life for the past year. 

Terra was smiling at O. “Finally. Someone with sense.” She leaned on his chair, looking at the computer screen. “How are the vents?”

“Too small for crawling.” O answered. “The bigger issue is the security.”

“What’s the system looking like?”

The two continued to talk technobabble to each other. All of it was going over Martha’s head. She was decent but not to their level. 

“How’d you get in?” Terra asked. “From MI6?”

“They sent me in undercover to make sure the CEO- Daniel Barton- hadn’t become a double agent.”

“Had he?”

“I couldn’t say. Not before the Master killed him early last year.” O explained. “Left a bit of a power vacuum. Nobody really knows who’s in charge of VOR right now. But that leaves a lot of space open for me to see things. Like just what exactly R&D is working on and when.”

Terra grinned at O. “You’re good.”

O preened. “You’re not bad yourself. Are you good to go?”

“Keep Martha alive.” Terra bargained.

“I wouldn’t dare hurt a Time Lady’s companion.” O replied. “MI6 has reports- I’ve read them all.”

Terra just smiled through any real emotion she was having. Martha was showing her annoyance. 

“No. Terra I’m-”

“Tell me exactly what we just said.” Terra prompted. Martha blanked. “Right. You stay here, make sure our exit is ready.”

“Terra-”

“There is  _ no time _ !” Terra argued. “The longer we’re in vore headquarters, the more stressed I am.”

O made the noise- his namesake noise. “You think it’s  _ that  _ kind of Vore, don’t you?”

“There’s another kind?!” Terra asked, recoiling in horror. She walked to the door. “Nope. Nope. 1/10 I do  _ not _ recommend.” She pulled it open, sneaking out as she closed it.

Martha turned to O. He was typing away on his computer. “What other VOR is there?”

O shook his head. “It’s not for the light of heart. Why do you think Terra Johnson knows? She practiced.”

“Practiced using a search engine?”

O awkwardly laughed. Then he winced. “You mean that. That’s...that’s almost funny.”

“Well I’m not laughing.” Martha argued. “What are you talking about?”

==TTW==

Terra snuck into the computer lab down the hall. O told her the lab should be empty. Terra hardly cared right now. Who the  _ fuck  _ named a  _ search engine  _ ‘vore’? What was the point? Was it a joke? An evil plot?

_ Oh it was definitely an evil plot. This feels like a personal attack. Ugh- disgusting. _

She opened the door to the lab.

She froze.

_ Somebody lied to O. _

The lab was full of labs techs. All of them working, rushing about like lives depended on it. Maybe it did- Terra had a sneaking suspicion about all of it.

_ Could it be a trap? No, they would be quieter. Maybe a trap against O? Give him a fake schedule for when the lab was empty- see if he does anything. No, cause then the lab would be quieter to keep him from being spooked off. _

_ It’s not a trap for O. _

_ Is it by O? _

_ Oh, that sneaky bastard. _

_ It’s just mad enough to work. The chatter was spreading word that I was building the gun to be stronger, so O helped set up the most perfect trap to get me inside. _

_ And I brought Martha too. _

That didn’t calm Terra down.

She slid inside the lab, raising a gun from her Bag.

_ They’ll come back in a week. _

==TTW==

O picked up another folder. “See, usually I leave these files at my place. When I heard she was coming, I had to bring it.”

Martha eyed it. “Bring what?”

O stretched out his arm.

“What’s in it?”

“Terra Johnson.” O answered. “Everything MI6 has got on her current face.”

Martha would admit, she wanted to see it. Terra just seemed so much a stranger lately. This Terra was unpredictable. Martha couldn’t tell anymore when Terra was being serious, or if Martha was supposed to take her seriously. Martha was trying to save the world, while Terra played around and tried to get herself killed.

And what happened between Japan and New Zealand. 

If she had just a few answers...maybe then Martha would know how to handle Terra.

But it was such a betrayal of Terra’s trust, she didn’t deserve  _ that _ . No matter how badly Martha wanted answers.

O seemed to see her indecision. The computer did too. It started pinging an alarm. O went to check in, cursing at whatever he saw. 

“What happened?” Martha asked. 

“They changed the date. The testing was  _ today _ .” O turned the screen for Martha to see. “Terra just walked right into it.”

Martha gasped. 

On the screen was a testing lab full of technicians. Many of them were holding guns, pointed towards a bright pink figure. She herself aimed a smoking gun at a fresh corpse. 

==TTW==

She got blood on her dress.

That was an issue for later. 

It was on the blue part. That could be ignored.

Gun still in hand, Terra reached up to fix her bow.

“I said, get down on the ground!” A lab tech ordered. Lab techs with guns, how American.

_ “Tranquil as a forest but on fire within. _ ” Terra cocked the gun, firing off a shot. She ducked to avoid the wave of bullets coming at her.  _ “Once you’ve found your center-” _

She pushed herself up off a desk, spinning up in. She fired at two more lab techs.

_ “-you are sure to win!” _

==TTW==

Martha could only watch. “Oh god.”

Terra was going to shoot up the whole lab at this rate!

She was full of pressing questions. What was Terra doing? What started this? Was it them, or her? Why was she still shooting? And- most pressing-  _ had she done this before? _

The movements were efficient- precise. Terra wasn’t going about this like an idiot. She was fighting and shooting as any skilled soldier Martha had seen. She dodged bullets like she had been trained. Martha remembered hearing Terra previously worked in American law enforcement, she doubted they taught skills like  _ that _ .

“This one’s always had an itchy finger.” O mused, not seeming to care that his coworkers were being shot up.

“Why is she doing that?”

“She thinks they’re the enemy.” O answered. “Doesn’t take much for Terra Three to decide to kill you. I remember once she killed someone because he walked in-”

Martha turned to him. “You know her? Like, really know her? I thought you were MI6?”

“I was her friend first.” O supplied. “We go way back. Not yet, for her anyway. She sends me memes.” He smiled fondly at the screen. Terra had rushed up between two lab techs, shooting them both in the face before gleefully skipping away from more bullets. “Those were headshots. She actually did a good job on that-”

Martha shook her head. “No. No, I don’t believe you. This- whatever is happening there, Terra has a good reason.”

O tilted his head. He gave Martha a long stare. “How sure are you?”

Martha couldn’t give an answer.

“This file has that answer. You’d just have to read it.” O explained.

Martha knew he was right. But it would be such an invasion of privacy...but Terra shot a room full of people- the Doctor wouldn’t approve. He wouldn’t approve of Martha’s action either.

The Doctor wasn’t here right now.

“What’s in it?” Martha asked. “Specifically.”

O grinned. “Just how she’s spent her time as Norah Rettere.”

==TTW==

Terra cocked it again. She fired, hitting a man in the arm.

He dropped his gun, falling to the ground. He clutched his bleeding arm. 

“ _ Time is racing towards us.” _ Her footsteps were still silent as death. The only sounds were his pain filled whines and the still going alarm.  _ “Till the huns arrive.” _

Terra aimed. The man flinched.

_ “Heed my every order and you might survive.” _ She ordered.

The man whimpered, nodding.

“Turn off the alarm.” Terra ordered.

The man stumbled to his feet. He walked over the keypad on the wall. A few quick buttons pressed and a whispered conversation had the alarm stopped.

Terra tilted her head. “My gun wants to know if you told secrets.”

“No, no I swear I-”

“I believe you.” Terra replied. “But my gun don’t.” She cocked it. The man started to cry. “Where is it?”

“Please, please don’t kill me-”

“Answer my gun’s question.” Terra instructed. “Where-is-the gun you were testing?”

He pointed. One of his dead coworkers had it curled in her palm. Apparently they were figured to test it on a Time Lord.

“Huzzah!” Terra skipped over. She worked to get the dead woman’s grip off the gun. “Hey. Who decided testing was today?”

The lab tech hiccuped on a sob. 

In another life, Terra would’ve cared. “Hey. Buddy. My gun has a lot of bullet point questions. You don’t get to the point, I get you to the bullet. Who changed the testing date?”

The lab tech swallowed down a cry of pain, still painful bleeding. “Our boss.”

“Daniel Burton died last year.” Terra replied. “My gun doesn’t like liars.”

“I swear! I swear- the order came from the boss!” The lab tech explained.

Terra glanced towards the keypad. She pointed her gun at the lab tech. “Show me.”

The lab tech brought her over to the computer. A few keystrokes later, the order came up. Terra gave it a speed read. The lab tech was right. Their boss did send it.

Terra put her gun beside the computer. She started typing on it. From the corner of her eye, she saw the lab tech slinking back. “My gun doesn’t like runners. So get down on your knees, tell me you love me, or it starts shootin’.”

The lab tech quickly fell to his knees. “I love you.”

Terra hummed. “Always wanted to do that. Kevin McClaistrr, eat your heart out!”

==TTW==

Martha pushed the folder back. “No. I don’t want it.”

The folder crinkled just slightly in O’s hand. He smiled through it. He dropped it back among the many on the desk. “Good. Terra needs friends that believe in her.”

Martha couldn’t relax. “But I thought-”

“You haven’t read the file. I have.” O argued. “She’s had a bad time, that one. She’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

An uncomfortable weight settled in Martha’s chest. She didn’t feel like a good friend. She had been tempted to look in the first place, instead of just asking Terra. 

The door to the office was kicked open. Terra stepped in. Her gun was still out, ready to fire if need be. “Martha we gotta run.”

“Terra, what happened in there?” Martha asked.

Terra shook her head. “No time to explain. Oh- O. Guess what? Apparently the new boss wanted to check out the gun cause the Master heard about us. He ordered the thing actually destroyed. Aren’t we lucky we came in today?”

“Yes, you are.” O replied, leaning back in his seat. “Anything else?”

“Yeah. Did you know VOR could actually mean victim of repression?” Tears asked. “Which I thought was funny. Cause it’s a search engine. What’s being repressed- knowledge. Hahaha, classic search engine humor.”

“It makes sense for it to be the other one too.” O pointed out. At Terra’s disgusted face, he added “Humans digest the information in their brains.” Terra just stared for a beat. O grinned. “Toodles.”

“ _ O Toodles! Has the tools, the Mouseketools!” _ Terra grabbed Martha’s arm, dragging her out from the office. “We need to leave. Need to leave  _ now _ .”

Her tone was telling Martha she wouldn’t get any answers just yet. Martha joined Terra in running out the building.

Neither of them were watching O. His grin turning smug, and a mad glint in his brown eyes. 

Three had always been his favorite Terra to play with. 

==TTW==

Terra practically threw Martha into the backseat. James jumped, startled at the arrival. “What the-”

“Drive, man, drive!” Terra ordered.

James didn’t ask. He got the car moving. He would drive towards the next meet up point, so Terra and Martha could spread word.

In the backseat, Terra finally took a breath. She tucked her gun away, grabbing the duffle bag from an oddly silent Martha. Terra unpacked the duffle to stuff everything in her Bag.

“Terra, what happened in there?”

Terra said nothing.

“O got the security footage. We watched the whole thing.”

Terra’s expression did an odd thing. Rather than shutting down into a clear blankness, she settled her lips into a soft innocent smile. That smile barely reached her eyes, just enough that maybe anyone else would’ve missed the dangerous sharpness. “Ah.”

“Yeah.” Martha glanced to James, before leaning in. Her voice dropping to a whisper. “Did you have to...shoot them?”

“Yes.” Terra answered obediently. Almost robotically, like she wasn’t a person as she talked. Her answers didn’t seem to come from anything human. She was something else...giving a report like an automotive response on a helpline. “ _ I want something that I want, something that I tell myself I need-” _

“We don’t even need a gun!” Martha hissed in a low voice. Every part of her showing emotion, from the tension in her shoulders as she inches towards Terra, the strands of hair fallen loose from her tight bun, a  _ rage _ that only could come from something fierce living beneath the skin. “The Doctor has  _ never _ asked us to kill- ever! I don’t even get why you would!”

“ _ We just need to unwind in our time machine.”  _ Terra answered- her time unchanging. Martha pulled at her loose hair.  _ “We need to go far away, one year back they’ll be okay.” _

“That doesn’t mean you can just kill whoever you want.” Martha argued.

Terra just gave that soft innocent smile. It was stiff, not quirking for a grin or dropping for a frown. The whole look on her face seemed painted on. Unmoving, unfeeling, unwilling to change.  _ “...something bad happening in Oz-” _

“Yes Terra. Exactly. What you did was  _ bad _ .” Martha scolded. “Are you like this now? The new you- just another American who likes using guns?”

Terra’s face stayed frozen. 

“I didn’t recognize you up there.” Martha admitted. “You didn’t look like my friend.” She remembered the smiles on that footage, the height of the skips, a laugh that she couldn’t hear but didn’t stop her mind from imagining. “You looked like-”

Her eyes weren’t even twitching, despite the fact that Terra felt them burning. Terra heard what Martha wasn’t saying.

Martha only saw those murderous actions once before. On a Time Lord that shot down the American president, killed millions, and took over the planet. He laughed when killing Jack, and laughed as Martha cried in rage for her family. Terra just stood there. Silent.

She wasn’t silent now. Terra moved at last, leaning forward. 

James must’ve heard the squeaking leather on his seats. “Yeah- I’m taking you out of town. There’s a safe house there. Perfectly vetted.”

Terra hummed, leaning back in her seat.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Martha asked, hurting, accusatory,  _ pleading  _ with Terra to give her  _ something. _

Terra didn’t say a word. She just started singing again.

“ _ It’s not simple to say that most days I don’t recognize me.”  _ Terra sang. She curled her legs up on the seat, moving them under her. She stared out her window.

Martha turned her back, doing the sand out her own window. Over the months, turning out Terra’s songs was easy. 

James- a taxi driver- usually kept from listening in. Bun now the car was so silent and dreary, he couldn’t help but hear it.

_ “That these shoes and this apron, that place and those patrons, have taken more than I gave them.” _ Nobody was Terra’s thumb tapping a beat on her skirt, right over some drops of blood.  _ “It’s not easy to know I’m not anything like I used to be. Although it’s true I was never attention’s sweet center. I still remember that girl.” _

Terra reached into her Bag, pulling out a small stain removing pen. She started to work on the dress.  _ “She’s imperfect but she tries. She is good but she lies. She is hard on herself, she is broken and won’t ask for help.” _

A tear dropped on her hand. Terra angrily wiped her cheek, still scrubbing her pen on her dress. 

“ _ She is messy but she’s kind. She is lonely most of the time. She is all of this mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie...she is gone but she used to be mine.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be happier...until I went “hey, didn’t they say in Spyfall that VOR had a spot in the US? Wasn’t that a thing? And wouldn’t the Master not give a shit? And wouldn’t Terra and the Master be friends if...they were completely different people- like he was still a psychopath and she didn’t know that?”  
> Then this all happened.  
> Also: I remembered as I was writing. Currently earth has: SIMM-Master causing shit, Missy collecting the dead for Cybermen, Twelve with Missy in the Vault, and O-Master in MI6. All at once. That’s a lot of masters on Earth.  
> (Psst it all ends next week!)


	17. Last of the Time Lords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! Last chapter for Tell The World. My heart is just overjoyed at the response this fic has gotten. Thanks to all of you who enjoyed it- didn’t enjoy it and wanted to call the social services for Terra- all of you, thanks!
> 
> So here are some warnings. There’s a torture scene (kinda? I’m not sure but warning anyway) with Jack and Gamora/Darcy. It’s not too graphic, or I don’t think so. Just warning that it might squick out people.
> 
> Oh also yeah the DW!GOTG are jerks. I would say they’re good people beneath that but like...Darcy/Gamora is the only human among them. Just for reference. Yeah...they’re fucked up.

The drivers stopped the boat. After giving them a heartfelt thank you, Terra and Martha climbed out. Terra happily ran through the waves. Sea foam gathered at her heels, covering her pink boots in bubbles.

Literally nothing could make her happier at this moment. 

Well maybe if there was a Mountain Dew in her hand, that would help.

Terra spotted a man on the shoreline. She recognized him from the show- finally, something recognizable that didn’t fill her with dread. Something from  _ Doctor Who _ that she could place, that meant this whole year was nearly over.

She couldn’t believe it. Two and a half years on the fighting against the Master, nearly four years in _ Doctor Who _ itself. She needed a vacation. Course, she realized this on the boat from the States to England. While Martha slept, Terra thought about what was meant for her after  _ this. _

But she couldn’t focus on later. Terra focused on the right now. Meeting with Docherty, telling the last view houses about the Doctor, and then...

Then...

Then...

Meeting the Master again.

Terra could make herself handle that. As she approached the Rebellion man on the coast, she tied her bowtie. Yeah she was in her favorite dress. It gave her more comfort than anything else the past week.

Martha walked past Terra- barely giving her a passing glance. Terra straightened out her wayward feelings with the same final adjustment on the bowtie.

“What’s your name, then?” Martha asked him.

“Tom Milligan.” He replied. “No need to ask who you are. The famous Terra Johnson and Martha Jones. How long since you were last in Britain?”

“Three-”

“Three hundred sixty four days, thirteen hours, twenty-four minutes.” Terra answered. Milligan raised a confused eyebrow at her. “Seconds are hard so I didn’t count those.”

“It’s been a long year.” Martha excused for Terra’s sake.

Milligan just went with it. Terra liked him. Well not completely. Martha  _ did  _ end up engaged to him...which hurt for like  _ so many _ reasons.  _ Terra 404- not equipped for handling emotions. Fuck off... _

All three started walking towards Milligan’s truck. Terra was glad her boots could handle walking the sand.

“So what’s the plan?” Milligan asked.

“This Professor Docherty. We need to see her. Can you get us there?” Martha explained.

“She works in a repair shed, Nuclear Plant Seven. I can get you inside.” Milligan answered. “What’s all this for? What’s so important about her?”

“Classified information.” Terra answered. “Can’t say. You understand.”

“There’s a lot of people depending on you.” Milligan reminded Terra. Unknowingly, it hit literally every insecure part of her. “You’re both a bit of a legend.”

Terra remembered a book, a butterfly hair clip, and  _ totally awesome _ . “Oooh. Am I? What’s the talk of the town?” She asked, remembering to wear an excited smile.

Martha wore no such smile. She was so dower lately. Terra didn’t blame her.

“That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you were the only people to get out of Japan alive.” Milligan gave Terra a searching look. Terra pointedly looked up at the stars. She would be among them very soon... “Terra Johnson, well, she’s gonna be the one to save the world. Bit late for that.”

_ She wanted to see the stars again... _

They reached Milligan’s truck. Terra missed the TARDIS, missed that blue box with something fierce. Something that wanted to howl, and shriek, and do just about anything to get back. Milligan took the driver seat, while Terra and Martha climbed on the other side. 

Terra was delighted to get the window seat- she could see that imaginary person running along with the car, just like she did on road trips as a kid. The only problem was that meant Martha got to sit closer to Milligan. Terra liked Milligan as a person. Not as a Martha-Jones-Love-Interest.

“How come you can drive? Don’t you get stopped?” Martha asked while Terra started to imagine the imaginary runner stretching.

Milligan held up his badge- so Terra saw in the reflection of the window. “Medical staff. Used to be in paediatrics back in the old days. But that gives me a licence to travel so I can help out the other labor camps.”

“Great. I’m travelling with a doctor.” Martha joked. She didn’t bump Terra with her elbow, or send the Time Lady a knowing smile, or do anything to share the joke. She left Terra to stare out the window, Martha considering that the Time Lady must be millions of worlds away.

Milligan looked to Terra. “Story goes that you’re the only person on Earth who can kill him. That you, and you alone, can kill the Master stone dead.”

Terra turned towards him. Her American Girl doll smile back in full force. “We’re late, we’re late, for a very important date.” She prompted.

Milligan hesitated for a second. Martha took this as confusion- Terra had done this many times before. “Just drive.”

==TTW==

Terra wouldn’t look much at the stars. There were far more terrifying things in the sky than stars or what adventures wait around them. If she looked at the stars right now, she would see the undercarriage of the  _ Valiant. _ If her radio turned on, she would hear a message from the Master to his prisoners down below.

“Citizens rejoice. Your lord and master stands on high!” The Master announced. He turned upwards to his ceiling, speaking to the computer. “Playing track thirty-three.”

He began to dance to the song playing. Music was so fun this century. For all the annoyance of Terra’s refusal to answer, her music wasn’t always half bad. He kept a lot of it saved. Since Terra had run off, he never had the chance to throw back all those songs in her face.

Instead he threw them at the Doctor. The Doctor was relegated to a tiny tent in the main room, a speaker in the wall playing Terra’s songs every now and again. Just whenever the Master wanted to play them. Her slow and soft songs, sung as she worked tirelessly on the Toclafane. Her manic, loud, ranting songs she sang in the Battle of Canary Wharf or any of the other darker days in her solitude. Why else would Terra have sung them unless she wanted the Doctor to hear?

The Master actually found himself liking the song. A personal preference- Terra had sung it to a Toclafane. 

_ “I can’t decide whether you should live or die.” _ Her voice came from the speakers. Anyone listening could hear it. She sounded so upbeat, despite that the Master had seen her face as she sang. How dead her eyes seemed, her flat expression, her complete lack of reaction as she cut apart what had once been a human head. _ “Though you’ll probably go to Heaven, please don’t hang your head and cry. No wonder why my heart feels dead inside. It’s cold and hard and petrified. Lock the doors and close the blinds, we’re going for a ride. Oh, I could throw you in a lake or feed you poisoned birthday cake. I won’t deny I’m going to miss you when you’re gone.” _

The Master held Lucy’s hand. He made her dance to the song. For the longest time, Lucy seemed sympathetic to Terra’s plight. Lucky for the Master that his control over her was so strong. He was able to turn her against Terra’s pain before long, to make Lucy fully believe that her treatment was necessary for what the Master wanted.

As he danced, he watched the people’s reactions. Francine- Martha’s mother- was bringing breakfast tea. A guard grabbed a teacup, chugging it down before dropping the cup. Francine wasn’t allowed to glare at the guard no matter how wide the guard’s grin. 

Six months ago, the Master hesitated when hiring that guard and their friends. The Master stopped regretting that choice after seeing how these humans were the absolute worst examples of humanity- a precursor to the metal robots flying in the sky. 

Francine had to clean up the broken cup. The guard grinned as they walked back to their post.

Another guard walked by Francine, eyeing the broken cup. She sneered. “Work faster, trash.” She made a point of stepping a boot on a broken glass shard- the pieces becoming that much smaller. Francine didn’t dare glare at this one.

The Master was most proud of this one. Quill, as she called herself, was a  _ beast _ . Most nights, Quill would work with Gamora and the Master to torture the freak in his chains. Oh Gamora could get under Jack’s skin but Quill had found a way to  _ dig  _ herself there, her type of pain branded on his bones. Quill’s ideas were always about telling the freak all the ways his friends had died- his Torchwood team, all his old paramours, even encouraging the Master to tell Jack all the things he’d done to Terra for 18 months. 

One to brag, the Master saw the merit. The freak would get so furious. It was always fruitless, Jack’s attacks after. Gamora would always kill him.

The rest of their team was better for menial labors. Groot was good to keep track of the mother Jones, the original traitor against her family. Groot made sure Francine worked the hardest, most pitiful, useless jobs. Anything Francine was ruined in some way by Groot. 

The other two watched the rest of the Joneses. Rocket watched Tish, always on her heels without any respite or breaks. Drax with the father, Clive, as he cleaned the floors. Rocket and Drax always did something to make a mess, forcing the Jones family to clean it only to make a new mess for them.

Quill hadn’t lied. Her people were perfect to work these tasks. The Master was so busy running the planet there wasn’t much time for the little things. Torturing the Jones family took a backseat to torturing the freak, which could only be fun so many times. Quill’s team made sure all of them were given a terrible treatment. Just enough that when Martha Jones was returned she could see the hell she cursed on her family.

Playing the music had been Quill’s idea. It had started with the freak, leading Quill to ask why he wasn’t playing the songs for the Doctor too. The other Time Lord had figured out the secret behind the Toclafane. Why not make it worse? The Master ordered it done the next day.

How could he forget their best contribution?

After the destruction of Japan, Quill’s team had just arrived. Quill claimed they knew Terra too- way back when before Terra met the Doctor. It was no secret to the Master that Terra had destroyed Japan before he could do it. Quill offered the only right counter. Terra apparently had old friends in South Carolina.  _ ‘Practically family’ _ were the exact words.

It was all so beautiful. 

All reports of the Time Lady had her smiling that same rubbish smile. The Master remembered it. She always did that right on her breaking point. The Master burning her old friends affected Terra more than she would admit.

He couldn’t wait to make it worse.

The Master stopped dancing with Lucy, twirling her to the table. He rushed over to the Doctor’s tent, ringing a bell to order him out.

The Doctor crawled out. His old bones weren’t able to hold him up. The Master dragged the elderly Time Lord into a wheelchair, dropping him in with little care.

_ “Oh, I could bury you alive but you might crawl out with a knife and kill me when I’m sleeping, that’s why I can’t decide whether you should live or die. Oh you’ll probably go to Heaven, please don’t hang your head and cry. No wonder why my heart feels dead inside. It’s cold and hard and petrified. Lock the doors and close the blinds, we’re going for a ride.” _

The Master wheeled the Doctor to the window. They could see the clouds, sun shining brightly on them.

“It’s ready to rise, Doctor!” He taunted. “The new Time Lord empire.”

The Toclafane began flying out. They moved in front of the window, spinning and flying as they prepared to go on a patrol. 

“It’s going as planned. Isn’t it good?” The Master asked him.

The Doctor was silent. He stared out the window.

“Anything?” The Master waves his hand over the unresponsive face of the Doctor. “No? Anything?!” The Master noticed how the Doctor wasn’t looking away- staring almost blankly at the Toclafane. “Oh but they broke your hearts, didn’t they? Those _ Toclafane? _ Ever since you worked out what they really are.”

Still nothing. Terra’s words were coming from the speakers faintly, the song nearly finished. 

“They say Martha Jones has come back home, and that she brought the Lady Terra Johnson with her. Now why would they do that?” The Master asked.

“Leave them alone.”  _ Ah finally, a reaction. _

“But you said something to them, didn’t you? On the day I took control.” The Master remembered it. He remembered turning around to see the Doctor whispering to Terra and Martha. They had left right after, Terra laughing mockingly at him. “What did you tell them?”

“I have one thing to say to you. You know what it is.” The Doctor reminded him.

The Master refused to hear it. “Oh no, you don’t!” He pushed the wheelchair away. 

Quill grabbed it for him. She pushed the Doctor off, making a point of ‘accidentally’ knocking her boots against the wheel axle. The bump made the Doctor jostle in the seat- no doubt it hurt. She smiled down, leaning down to look the Doctor in the eye. Well actually not properly. She wore mirrored sunglasses so the Doctor could look at his own face.

“Aww...my bad.” She replied. As she pushed him again, she kicked the axle again.

_ “Valiant now entering Zone One airspace. Citizens rejoice.” _

“Come on, people! What are we doing?” The Master called out. “Launch Day in twenty four hours.”

“Don’t worry, Doctor.” Quill snarked, leaning on the arm of his wheelchair. “Soon as Terra gets back, we’ll be out of your hair. Or, what’s left of it.”

The Doctor did and said nothing to Quill.

The Master noticed that. He didn’t notice the Doctor showing Francine a signal of three fingers on his thigh. Quill pushed the Doctor back to his tent, leaving his wheelchair there to sit idle.

As Francine walked out, Groot on her heels, Quill went to Lucy’s side. The wife sat herself down after the Master finished dancing with her. Quill’s boots made no sounds on the carpeted floor so Lucy didn’t hear her coming.

“Hey Lucy.” Quill cheered. She held the back of the chair. “How are you? Excited to be queen of the new Time Lord Empire?”

Lucy, much like the Doctor, didn’t react to the taunts. She had lost any sign of personality ages ago.

Quill- like the Master- enjoyed it.

==TTW==

Francine gave the signal to Clive. Groot gave Drax a quick nod of the head. He held up a thumb, grinning but without any joy. Clive gave the signal to Tish. Drax gave a similar nod to Rocket, who held up an ‘okay’. 

When they arrived at Jack’s cell, Tish had to wait to feed him. Gamora pulled out a knitting needle from where she stuck it in Jack’s hand.

Jack was acting like none of it was a big deal. Old news, as this point. Maybe it was to a man who lived for so many centuries, already enduring the worst sort of deaths out there. “Morning, Tish. Ah, smell that sea air.”

“Do you gotta feed him?” Gamora whined.

Rocket shrugged. “You starved him to death a month ago. Just the once, you know what Quill said.”

Gamora huffed, obeying. She moved to a cart where multiple weapons of torture were lying in wait. She started cleaning it up.

“Makes me long for good old British fish and chips.” Jack told Tish, ignoring the conversation of Gamora and Rocket. “Yeah. What do I get? Cold mashed swede. Some hotel. Last time I book over the Internet.”

“Remember, Tish, you got other chores today.” Rocket prompted.

Tish quickly fed him. She snuck in the signal. Jack winked in acknowledgement.

“Anything else?” Gamora asked Rocket.

“Yeah. Star Lady’s coming home.” Rocket explained. Gamora didn’t look up from sanitizing her needle. “You know what that means?”

“Yeah. I didn’t  _ suddenly _ forget protocol after using this.” Gamora held up the needle. “Not everybody’s got your shitty memory storage.”

Rocket held up his hands. “Had to be sure. You get a little weird when you...reenact  _ Hostel.” _

Gamora pointed the needle at his face. Inching it closer and closer until Rocket yanked it out of her hand. She nodded, impressed.

Once Tish was done Rocket walked her out. Gamora finally finished sterilizing the needle, putting it back with the rest.

“Stabbing or bullets...oh I just can’t decide.” Darcy mused. “I’d ask you but your opinion doesn’t matter.”

“What I don’t get, is you,  _ Anderson _ .” Jack narrowed his eyes at the woman standing guard. She didn’t look away from the door, keeping her gun ready to fire. “Terra’s your sister, and you’re working with the people that want her dead?”

Darcy snapped her head towards Jack. “Listen here,  _ dumbass _ . Don’t you ever think I’m so short sighted. Just because I’m not on her level doesn’t mean I’m not as smart.”

Jack scoffed. “She should’ve never brought you with her. Not if you were going to betray her like this.”

*BANG*

His chains rattled.

“Bullet then. Bullets are good.” Darcy kept glaring at him. She wouldn’t look away, not even when Jack gasped back to life. Darcy reloaded the gun, waiting. “Feel better?” She prompted, her tone cold.

Jack huffed. He lifted his head to glare at her. “Kill every partner you sleep with?”

“Just the bad ones.” Darcy answered.

“And I’m the exception cause- what- I can’t die?” Jack asked, not hiding his derisive smirk.

Darcy hummed, smoking proudly. “No, actually. You aren’t.”

“What could I have done that fits in your deluded moral code?” Jack snapped.

“456.”

Jack was quiet.

“You killed kids.” Darcy reminded him, smug. “No matter how you slice it,  _ you killed kids _ . And people like  _ that _ I’m allowed to kill. Those checks have been on the List since my sister  _ made _ the List. You hurt a kid, you’re fair-game. You touch a kid, you’re fair-game. A kid touches you, you’re fair game again, twice in the same week...you get the point.”

“I tried to stop it.”

“No you didn’t. You barely gave it a  _ college _ try.”

“There wasn’t another choice.”

“Yes there was. Terra proved it. Apparently, in my future, you finally do something fucked up enough where I won’t feel bad about fucking you. Even if you come back. Puts a downer on the whole thing, honestly.” Darcy held up her gun. “But I know how to fix that.”

The gun fired.

==TTW==

Below the  _ Valiant _ , on the Master’s Earth, Terra snuck around with Martha and Milligan. While in transit, Milligan stopped them to see what was badly hidden behind a mountain range.

They walked over to hide behind a ridge of rocks. Terra tried to remember better times she’d hidden behind rocks. Those times were fun. Maybe the next place she went could have rocks to hide-

_ But not before I’ve saved the world _ , her brain unhelpfully added.  _ I have to fix every problem I made here. I’m the reason the Master made it back- that he killed as many as he did. Everything is my fault. I have to fix it- everyone’s saying it _

Terra told herself to shut up. She wasn’t being helpful. She looked back from the way they came, seeing something that made her want to cringe. She’s already done that a hundred times for those things. Instead she stared at the statue, blank.

“It’s ugly.” Terra critiqued.

Martha looked towards the giant monument of the Master. Like Terra, she had seen them hundreds of times. There was something more disturbing about it being in her home country. 

Milligan looked at the same statue. For him, it was quite disturbing. 

“All over the Earth, those things. He’s even carved himself into Mount Rushmore.” Martha explained.

Terra thought it was much uglier than Candace Flynn’s face. Granted she only saw that in pictures, but it was a realistic picture. The Master’s face could use lava boils.

“Best to keep down.” Milligan told them, eager to move on.

Martha followed after him, agreeing. Terra stared at the statue for another moment before walking. 

“Here we go.” Milligan kneeled down, peeking over it to show them.

The cavern below had probably once been a wonder of nature. Terra could imagine rocks in wonderful awe inspiring ways, or a field with flowers. The Master corrupted the image. Instead everything was made flat- stone and concrete blocking nature. Over the groundwork were hundreds of rockets aimed for the sky.

It was a disgusting callback to the rocket he made on  _ Utopia. _

“The entire south coast of England, converted into shipyards.” Milligan reported to them. “They bring in slave labor every morning. Break up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal. Building a fleet out of scrap.”

Terra considered that a point of pride on her resume. A bit less exciting now, probably in poor taste to bring it up. 

“You should see Russia.” Martha leaned forward against the rock. “That’s Shipyard Number One. All the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait, there’s a hundred thousand rockets getting ready for war.”

“War? With who?” Milligan asked.

Terra started to hum. Martha cut her off. ”The rest of the universe. I’ve been out there, Tom, in space, before all this happened, and there’s a thousand different civilizations all around us with no idea of what’s happening here. The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all.”

Again, probably in poor taste to tell that Terra helped build some of those weapons.  _ Probably really bad...shouldn’t say. I shouldn’t say it.  _

She continued to hum.

“You’ve been in space?” Was the only thing Milligan wanted to comment on in that speech.

“We both have.” Terra replied. “It was fun, back then.”

“Problem with that?” Martha asked.

“No. No, just er, wow. Anything else I should know?” Milligan asked.

“I’ve met Shakespeare.”

“And Queen Victoria.” Terra added.

She heard them then.

That whirring, whoosh noise that came when she least wanted it. It was the wrong  _ whoosh _ noise, the wrong appearing out of nowhere. Why did everything here have to be so  _ wrong _ ?

Milligan rushed up to defend himself. Martha stayed quiet and low. Terra started to sing, gripping the rock she was lying on.

_ “Identify, little man.” _ The Toclafane ordered.

“I’ve got a licence.”

_ “I got a call today, at 3 am.” _

“Thomas Milligan, Peripatetic Medical Squad. I’m allowed to travel.”

_ “It’s what you didn’t say that told me I’d be hurt again-” _

_ “Terra shh!” _

“I was just checking for-”

_ “-so I hung up the phone, and I screamed out loud.” _

_ “Soon the rockets will fly, and everyone will need medicine.”  _ The Toclafane taunted. Milligan was still cowering to it, pleading for his life, hoping beyond hope that the robots wouldn’t kill him. “ _ You’ll be so busy.” _

_ “I felt so alone, I should’ve said the things I’m thinking now.” _

The Toclafane flew off. Terra pushed herself down the rock, curling her knees to her chest. Martha relaxed. Even with the filter, it never felt safe near those things.

“But they didn’t see either of you.” Milligan noted. Not complaining, just pointing it out.

“How do you think we travelled the world?” Martha stood up, pulling her key out to show him. 

Milligan glanced to Terra. The Time Lady hadn’t stood up, was still softly singing that song to herself. “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine.” Martha dismissed. 

“ _ It’s like I’m living in slow motion to a nightmare that never ends.” _

“She’s always like that.” Martha explained. “It just looks worse than it is. She’s not stopped doing that since the Master took over.”

Milligan looked over to the Time Lady. The girl proclaimed to be the hero to all humans, the one who would kill Saxon without flinching. He couldn’t see that hero there.

Instead all he saw were former patients of his, girls fifteen or sixteen muttering after being found beaten or assaulted. He saw teenage girls he had to send back to their homes because there were no reportable signs of abuse, the girls never admitting it. In residency, they had gone over the protocol for this situation. It stuck hard with Milligan and while nobody had expected this whole last year, that training helped a lot in dealing with kids that lost their families to the Decimation.

Milligan didn’t know it, but he was the first person in a year that looked at Terra like she was a person.

So, like he would have with any of his former abuse patients, he approached the girl while keeping himself slow and unthreatening.

“Miss Johnson?” Milligan prompted.

Terra shook her head. She was trying to curl further, singing louder.  _ “Oh it’s deafening the bitter truth-” _

“That’s a good song.” Milligan replied. Martha watched with curiosity, and some hesitation. She was worried for her friend- about what Terra’s behavior could mean. “What is it?”

Terra stopped singing for a moment. She looked up at him, confused.

“I don’t remember what it’s called.” Milligan added. “It’s stuck in my head now. Could you help?”

Though he had no way of really knowing it, those were the right words. Terra’s mind was fractured- or near enough. Her mind snapped itself to focus for this action. Someone needed help. Terra was obligated to answer. “ _ Seven Days of Lonely,  _ by _ I Nine _ .”

Milligan hummed. “Haven’t heard of it.”

“Nobody has.” Terra held back that it was because the song wouldn’t come out until 2008 proper. “Can- can I go back to singing it please?”

“Sure thing, once we get back to the car.” Milligan explained. “I would rather you sing someplace safe. Those Toclafane could come back.”

Terra laughed. A soft bitter laugh that didn’t fit her. The sound was wrong coming from her- too cynical for that face.  _ ‘They won’t hurt me. They’ll just hurt you _ .’ Her smile fell into a broken frown. “Okay.”

The young girl pushed herself to her feet. Milligan held out a hand, the girl shook her head at it. Milligan pulled it back. 

Martha watched this whole exchange. She had no idea what just happened. How had Tom gotten Terra to stop singing? Martha never managed that. Terra would either sing forever, or vanish like a ghost. Sometimes Terra seemed normal, only to go right back to that odd behavior. Martha could never figure out how to get Terra back to it. Or if there even  _ was  _ a  _ ‘back to normal _ ’, as Terra’s new face always acted off.

“Explain those keys again?” Milligan prompted.

Martha watched Terra, still so confused about how Tom had gotten her to stop. But the question was easier to answer. “Because the Master set up Archangel, that mobile network, fifteen satellites around the planet, but really it’s transmitting this low level psychic field. That’s how everyone got hypnotized into thinking he was Harold Saxon.”

“Saxon. Feels like years ago.” Milligan sighed. 

“But the key’s tuned in to the same frequency. Makes us sort of not invisible, just unnoticeable.” Martha explained.

Terra fiddled with the watch on her wrist. Her fingers tapping a beat.

“Well, I can see you two.” Milligan pointed out.

“That’s because you wanted to.” Martha excused.

“Yeah, I suppose I did.” Milligan glanced at Martha then back towards Terra. He noticed the tapping on the watch, thinking nothing of it. 

“Is there a Mrs. Milligan?” Martha wondered.

Milligan shook his head. “Uh...No. No. What about you?”

“Can we keep the flirting down, thanks?” Terra requested. She lifted her hand to her neck, running her hand on the bowtie.

Martha thought about the only romantic interest in her life. Remembered the Doctor, sometimes seeming like he was going to kiss her, but stopped because of feelings for Rose Tyler or because Terra was suffering.

Just like she was now. 

“We gotta get Docherty.” Terra reminded Martha. “Right? We gotta do that. So- so we can-”

Over her shoulder, Terra saw the Master’s statue.

“We’ll have to wait until the next work shift.” Milligan explained. “What time is it now?”

“2:58.” Terra answered. “No...just 59.”

All three climbed into the car. Only when the doors were shut and belts were buckled did Terra start singing again.

==TTW==

_ 2:59:36...2:59:37...2:59:38... _

The Master was getting a massage. Gamora was on her lunch break, Quill with her. The other three were diligently doing their jobs. 

Rocket and Groot we’re eating lunch, constantly flinging the mashed potatoes at the wall. Francine was made to constantly clean it while Tish kept replacing their food on their orders.

“Time for my massage.” The Master announced to everyone in the conference hall. “Who shall I have today? Tanya. Come on, sweetheart. Lucy, have you met Tanya? She’s gorgeous. Tanya, when we go to the stars, I’m going to take you to the Catriga Nova. Whirlpools of gold.”

Rocket turned to Groot. Both of them rolled their eyes. Groot three another spoonful of potatoes.

“Hey Tish. Refill.” Groot ordered.

Tish glanced at the clock before obeying.

Deep below, Jack yelled as his chains were coming off the ramparts. Quill and Gamora we’re headed back to the room- just having finished their lunch.

The Master was still making idle chatter to his masseuse and wife. Tish walked to the tray of lunch foods for The guards. Conveniently placed by the Master’s jacket.

At exactly three, Jack broke free. The door opened. Gamora walked in. 

“What the fu-”

Jack grabbed a steam hose, aiming it at her. Gamora yelled as she went down. Quill growled before the hose was aimed at her.

Clive dumped a mop bucket on electrical wires. Drax just sighed, looking to the heavens in aggravation.

“Dude don’t make me do this.” Drax asked.

Clive threw the bucket at Drax’s head.

“I  _ really  _ don’t wanna do this.” Drax sighed. “But  _ fine _ .”

_ “Condition red.”  _ The computer warned.

Everyone in the conference hall sat up. 

The Master climbed off the massage table. “What the hell?” 

_ “Repeat, condition red.” _

Tish grabbed the Master’s jacket. She threw it over to the Doctor. The Doctor pulled out the laser sonic, aiming it at the Master. 

The Master smiled, understanding. “Oh, I see.”

“I told you. I have one thing to say.” The Doctor apple in a wheezing breath. 

The Master laughed. He reached for the sonic. The device did not work no matter how much the Doctor pushed the button. “Isomorphic controls.” He took his sonic back. “Which means they only work for me. Like this.”

He fired it towards Francine. The older woman screamed as she ducked- narrowly avoiding death.

“Say sorry!” The Master ordered. 

“Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.” Francine hissed at him, still cowering.

“Mum!” Tish was grabbed by an irate Rocket.

The door was thrown open. Quill was storming in, marching towards the Doctor. Her black hair looked more manic and wild out of its ponytail, like a big wind had blown it apart. She grabbed him, bodily dragging him to a chair.

“Didn’t you learn anything from the blessed Saints Terra and Martha?” The Master spat out her name, like Martha wasn’t more than human filth. Lucy helped him put his jacket back on. “Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do. Take them away.”

Groot and Rocket glanced to Quill. She nodded at them.

Groot grabbed Francine. Rocket dragged Tish. “This way.” Groot instructed. 

The Master walked down the stairs. He grinned at Quill. “The others?”

“Gamora is correcting the freak’s behavior. Drax is doing the same with Mr Jones.” Quill reported. She was putting her hair back in its usual tight ponytail. “Rocket and Groot know how to correct the ladies’ behaviors. Do you require assistance with the Doctor, Master?”

“No. You can stand down.” The Master replied. Quill nodded. She along with Lucy stepped back, letting the two Time Lords converse.

The Master sat down on the edge of the table. He used his foot to spin the Doctor. “Oh boy. There you go, Gramps. Oh, do you know, I remember the days when the Doctor, oh, that  _ famous _ Doctor, was waging a Time War, battling Sea Devils and Axons. He sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade single handed. And look at him now. Stealing screwdrivers. How did he ever come to this? Oh yeah, me.” He laughed.

“I just need you to  _ listen _ .”

“No, it’s my turn. Revenge! Best served hot. And this time, it’s a message for Miss Johnson and Miss Jones.” He grinned manically.

“Shall I get the camera, Master?” Quill asked in a voice too cheerful for the times.

“Would you please?”

==TTW==

Milligan guided Martha and Terra into a large workshop. They heard yelling, muttering, and slamming of things. Terra already loved it. 

They found a haggard woman sitting at a table. She was fiddling with a small television, trying to get it to work. 

“Professor Docherty?” Milligan called out.

“Busy.” She dismissed them.

“They, er, they sent word ahead. I’m Tom Milligan.” Milligan explained. “This is Terra Johnson and Martha Jones.”

Docherty fiddled with wires, electrical whines going off. “They can be the Queen of Sheba for all I care. I’m still busy.”

“Televisions don’t work anymore.” Martha reminded her. 

Docherty sighed, falling into her seat. Terra walked around behind the TV, pulling out her radio. She began moving the wires to connect the two. “Oh God, I miss Countdown. Never been the same since Des took over. Both Deses. What’s the plural for Des? Desi? Deseen? Oi, what’re you doing?”

The wires whined again. Terra twisted an antennae. A picture showing up on screen of a familiar meeting hall in full color. All three humans gawked. 

“How’d you do that!” Docherty asked.

Terra shrugged, pulling at her sleeve. “My radio works. It just- connected itself to the satellites because my radio was already connected. Getting it to work with the-”

“Why’s it showing us that?” Martha asked.

“That’s why I was trying to get it working in the first place.” Docherty explained. Terra’s shoulders sagged. She walked around to Docherty’s side. “We’ve been told there’s going to be a transmission from the man himself.”

“Speak of the devil.” Milligan commented as the Master came on screen.

Terra flinched, crossing her arms. She rubbed them to get out the discomforted buzz under her skin.

_ “My people. Salutations on this, the eve of war. Lovely woman. But I know there’s all sorts of whispers down there.” _

==TTW==

Gamora had a gun aimed at Jack. She short as the broadcast was gonna. Jack slumped in his chains, but didn’t die. 

_ “Stories of children, walking the Earth, giving you hope.” _

Jack watched in dawning horror. Gamora used a taser on his bullet wound.

==TTW==

Drax, Rocket, and Groot were in a small prisoner room. They handcuffed the Jones family to their beds, forcing them to watch the broadcast. 

_ “But I ask you.” _

==TTW==

_ “How much hope has this man got?” _

Terra forced herself shoulders to square back. The sight of the Doctor gutted her. She had memories of him in that leather jacket, of endless teasings that he was old enough for retirement home. It was true now, she couldn’t even laugh at it.

_ “Say hello, Gandalf.”  _ The Master encouraged, with his usual arrogance and cheer.

The Doctor looked up at the screen. Any strength Terra gathered was gone. Her friend was  _ in pain _ . Her friend was being  _ tortured _ . This was just the Doctor, what about Jack-

_ Shut up _

_ You’re only making everything harder. _

_ Fix your fucking mess _

_ Cry later _

_ “Except he’s not that old, but he’s an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted little apes. But what if it showed?” _

==TTW==

“What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate?” The Master asked.

Quill stood behind the camera, idly cutting her nails. The woman showed no signs of remorse or emotion. She was blank, like any good executioner was when carrying out the wills of their betters.

“All nine hundred years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?” The Master held up his laser sonic. After twisting a dial, he aimed. It fired. 

The Doctor screamed. 

The Master continued, as if nothing was happening. “Older and older and older. Down you go, Doctor. Down, down, down the years.”

The Doctor fell from his wheelchair, convulsing.

“Doctor?”

==TTW==

No response.

_ He wasn’t talking. _

_ This Doctor was always gabbing. Why did he stop? What happened- _

_ “Received and understood,  _ Terra _?” _

Terra walked around behind the television. She pulled wires out, disconnecting the broadcast. “I’m taking my radio back.”

Nobody argued with her.

“I’m sorry.” Milligan told them both.

Martha smiled wide. “The Doctor’s still alive. Right Terra?”

Terra tucked the radio into her Bag. ‘ _ If he dies from a sonic, my past self will come back long enough to mock him for it.’ _ Instead she looked up, giving only the shortest of nods before moving on.

She just wanted this year to  _ end. _

==TTW==

Docherty printed out documents. On then were designs for the satellites. Milligan asked about the fifteen ones orbiting Earth, which made Docherty curious. 

“Obviously the Archangel Network would seem to be the Master’s greatest weakness.” Docherty reasoned. “Fifteen satellites all around the Earth, still transmitting. That’s why there’s so little resistance. It’s broadcasting a telepathic signal that keeps people scared.”

“We could just take them out.” Milligan offered. 

“We could. Fifteen ground to air missiles. You got any on you?” Docherty asked. Terra gave a little ghost of a smile for that. “Besides, any military action, the Toclafane descend.”

“That’s a lie.” Terra admitted. “That’s not what they are.”

“Then what are they, then?” Docherty prompted.

Terra tensed up.

Martha stepped in. “That’s why we came to find you. Know your enemy. Terra have you got it?”

Terra reached into her Bag. She pulled out a DVD case, turning it, she pulled out a CD. 

“No one’s been able to look at a sphere close up. They can’t even be damaged, except once.” Martha explained. Terra handed the CD over to Docherty. “The lightning strike in South Africa brought one of them down, just by chance. I’ve got the readings on this.”

Docherty put the CD in her computer.

Terra turned to Martha, putting her CD case away. “We need this...because?”

Martha gave the Time Lady an unamused stare. 

Terra sucked her lips. She breathed out, reaching for her sleeves again. They didn’t need this information. There’s no reason for Martha to learn that the Toclafane. Nothing was added to anything- except Martha finding out the truth.

_ She was just so scared...she didn’t want anyone to know...fuck... _

Docherty bonked the computer side. The image was grainy. “Oh, whoever thought we’d miss Bill Gates.”

“So is that why you travelled the world? To find a disc?” Milligan asked Terra and Martha.

“No. Just got lucky.” Martha explained.

“I heard stories that you walked the Earth to find a way to build a weapon.” Docherty replied.

Terra didn’t want Martha to find out. It would be easy to make sure Martha couldn’t. Terra spent enough time working on the Toclafane, it would be easy to make it self-destruct.

There was the option of just telling Martha the needed exposition. Terra spilling the beans about things would save them from actually seeing the Toclafane.

She would just need to open her mouth. 

“There! A current of fifty eight point five kiloamperes transferred charge of five hundred and ten megajoules precisely.”

Terra just needed to say  _ ‘they’re humans from the future. It’s paradox stuff. Let’s move on.’ _

“Can you recreate that?” Milligan asked.

_ ‘It’s just paradox stuff. Let’s move on.’ _

“I think so. Easily. Yes.” Docherty answered.

“Right then, Doctor Milligan, we’re going to get us a sphere.”

“Martha wait-” Terra began.

“Terra. We’re doing this.” Martha insisted. “For the Doctor.”

_ Author fucking dammit _

==TTW==

Milligan shot into the sky. Terra heard it. She was with Docherty, working on the electric device.

_ Fuck she wanted to break it over her knee. _

Martha ran around a corner. “He’s coming. You ready?”

“Absolutely not!” Terra answered.

Docherty just laughed. “You do your job, I’ll do mine!”

Terra laughed too- maybe that was the proper reaction. By the roll of Martha’s eyes, she wasn’t right.

_ Fuck _ .

Milligan rushed through. “Now!”

Terra moved to activate the gate, hesitating.  _ Fuck,  _ she tore apart that head to make it a perfect human killing machine. She couldn’t tear it apart.

Those things had been her only companions for over a year.

She couldn’t hurt it. 

Docherty did so without hesitation.

“That’s only half the job. Let’s find out what’s inside.”

==TTW==

Quill absentmindedly looked down at her fingernails. “Dammit, I can’t get the color right.”

She stood up, walking to the giant bird cage in the room. The tiny, hunched over form of the Doctor inside. Much like comparisons to his Harry Potter actor, this time he looked like the Voldemort baby. Only with wrinkles.

“What do you think?” Quill asked him.

The Doctor glared at Quill. In firm defiance, he leaned back in his cage.

Quill shrugged it off. She sat down in a chair, painting her nails. 

“ _ I’m going To kill him, if I have to wait a hundred years. I’m going to kill the Master.” _

==TTW==

Darcy stood in Jack’s cell. The rifle aimed at him never to falter. She was still able to torture him. 

He’s just been so annoying. Nobody liked getting steam to the face...

_ “One day he’ll let his guard down. One day.” _

==TTW==

Drax and Rocket were playing cards. Groot was typing on a tablet. 

“And I’ll be there.” Francine finished her rant.

“No, that’s my job.” Clive insisted. “I’ll swear to you, I’d shoot that man stone dead.”

“I’ll get him. Even if it kills me.” Tish promised.

“Don’t say that.” Francine pleaded. 

“I mean it. That man made us stand on deck and watch the islands of Japan burning, and that state in America.” Tish countered. “Millions of people. I swear to you, he’s dead.”

Rocket snorted. “You won’t kill him.” He informed them dryly.

“Rocket.” Drax warned.

“Yes we will!” Tish snapped at him. “He’s going down.”

Rocket scoffed.

“Rocket.” Drax warned, his voice a low threat.

Rocket quieted, paying closer attention you his cards. “You’re too nice to them, dude.”

“That’s my business.” Drax countered. “Now shut up.”

Groot sat up. The tablet pinging wildly. “Guys?”

They turned to her. Groot held up the tablet screen. The Jones family couldn’t see what was there. Only Groot’s reaction of a concerned frown made them not care. The two men were watching it with stone faces.

If it made these people upset, it must be bad for the Master. Let whatever comes down on them be swift. 

==TTW==

The Master walked into the conference hall. Lucy stumbles in after him, eyes vacant as she followed behind him.

“Good evening, sir!” Quill cheered. She tucked away the bottle of nail polish. “Did you want a minute alone with himself?”

“No, stay. You’re going to want to hear this.” The Master stretches out his mouth into a crazed smile. He turned to the Doctor in his bird cage. “Tomorrow, they launch. We’re opening up a rift in the Braccatolian space. They won’t see us coming. It’s kind of scary.”

“Then stop.” The Doctor asked.

The Master walked closer to the cage, pressing his forehead against the golden bars. “Once the Empire is established, and there’s a new Gallifrey in the heavens, maybe then it stops. The drumming. The never ending drumbeat. Ever since I was a child. I looked into the vortex. That’s when it chose me. The drumming, the call to war. Can’t you hear it? Listen, it’s there now. Right now. Tell me you can hear it, Doctor. Tell me.”

The Doctor held the bars. “It’s only you.”

“Good.”

The door opened. A Toclafane flew in, attaching itself to a metal beam rising up from the table.  _ “Tomorrow, the war. Tomorrow we rise, never to fall.” _

“You see? I’m doing it for  _ them _ . You should be grateful. After all, you love them so very, very much.” The Master taunted.

Quill spun around in her seat. She might’ve made eye contact with the Doctor. Her sunglasses kept anyone really knowing where she was looking. 

==TTW==

Terra was on the verge of a panic attack. 

“There’s some sort of magnetic clamp. Hold on, I’ll just trip the-” Docherty huffed, trying to work it open.

Terra turned to the other humans in the room. “We don’t have to do this.”

“Yes we do. We need to get inside-” Martha began.

“No we don’t. Anything- I could just tell it.” Terra explained. “I figured it out. I could- I’ll just say it.”

Martha shook her head. 

“Martha?”

“Look, Terra, I just don’t think you’d say the whole thing.” Martha answered.

_ ‘Wow. I mean it’s true but you don’t have to say it.’ _ Terra thought.

She heard the Toclafane open it’s head. The sound itself cut deep- echoing in her mind with a million billion sounds just like it. The same many times seeing half-decayed human faces stuck inside twisted metal.

Everything about them was wrong, deformed, disgusting.

She fixed everything she touched.

Terra pushes herself past the modern day living humans. Standing behind them, she fiddled with her watch. Her hearts were racing, making it difficult to breathe. 

Docherty gasped. “Oh my God! It’s alive.”

“Terra. Martha. Terra. Martha Jones.” The Toclafane spoke. 

Terra shuddered. She curled her arms around her chest, humming a Veggietales song.

“It knows you two.” Milligan noted.

“Sweet, kind Martha Jones. Beautiful, singing Terra. You helped us to fly.” The Toclafane praised them for it.

Terra wanted to be sick. 

“What do you mean?” Martha asked. “Terra what does it mean?”

Terra shook her head. Her back was to Martha, hiding her tear filled eyes and quivering lip. 

“You led us to salvation.” The Toclafane explained.

“Who are you?” Martha asked.

“The skies are made of  _ diamonds _ .” The Toclafane explained. Terra let out a horrified, disgusted shudder.

“No. You can’t be him.” Martha pleaded

“We share each other’s memories. You sent him to Utopia.” The Toclafane explained.

“Oh, my God. Terra you knew about this?” Martha asked. Terra stayed hidden. “Terra!”

The Time Lady whirled around. She let Martha see the tears on her cheeks, the manic glare in those once friendly amber eyes. “How could they have been anything else?” Terra asked.

“What’s it talking about? What’s it mean?” Milligan asked. 

“What are they?” Docherty added.

“You don’t want to know.” Terra argued against them. “You don’t need to know. That’s what I’ve been saying. We can just move on without anyone else finding out.”

“We can’t do that to them.” Martha countered.

“You don’t even wanna know!” Terra yelled.

“Terra.” Milligan stepped forward. Terra twisted her face up, seemingly one second from either falling into a pile of tears or throwing over the table in rage. “Terra, tell us. What are they?”

“They’re us.” Martha answered for her. She assumed Terra would probably sing an answer, or just deny it entirely. “They’re humans. The human race from the future.”

==TTW==

“I took Lucy to Utopia- the very last stand of humanity.” The Master sat in a seat beside Quill. “A Time Lord and his human companion. Terra stayed behind to work. I took her to see the stars. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“Trillions of years into the future, to the end of the universe.” Lucy recited.

“Tell them what you saw.” The Master instructed.

Quill leaned back in her seat, looking towards Lucy. The wife was still standing- almost like she’d forgotten she could sit down without being ordered. “Dying. Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart, and I thought, there’s no point. No point to anything. Not ever.”

The Master leaned towards the Doctor. “And it’s all your fault.”

==TTW==

Terra shook her head. “No. No- no. We don’t- we don’t have to say anything. We can just move on-”

“No we can’t. Terra we have to tell them.” Martha argued.

“Tell them? Tell them what?” Terra asked. Her voice was rising, enough for Milligan and Docherty to hear everything. “Tell them that the last of humanity tried to save itself. They tried escaping extinction to only be turned into  _ that _ ?

“Yes!”

“So we also tell them that the Doctor froze the TARDIS- sorry that’s a time machine- froze her coordinates? Only two stops: the end of everything or Election Day. Oh but the Master was too  _ clever _ for that. No, he went back eighteen months.” Terra explained. “Eighteen...long...months...”

==TTW==

“You should have seen it, Doctor.” The Master recalled fondly. “Furnaces burning. The last of humanity screaming at the dark.”

==TTW==

“Utopia was supposed to save them. All those people we saw. It didn’t do them any good.” Terra ranted.

“There was no solution, no diamonds. Just the dark and the cold.” The Toclafane confirmed.

==TTW==

“All that human invention that had sustained them across the eons. It all turned inwards. They cannibalized themselves.” The Master explained.

_ “We made ourselves so pretty.”  _ The Toclafane recited, her voice so small and girlish. 

“Regressing into children. But it didn’t work.” The Master explained. “The universe was collapsing around them.”

==TTW==

“But then the Master and Terra came with their wonderful time machine to bring us back home.” The Toclafane explained.

Martha gawked at Terra. 

“But that’s a paradox. If you’re the future of the human race, and you’ve come back to murder your ancestors, you should cancel yourselves out. You shouldn’t exist.” Docherty reasoned.

“And that’s the paradox machine.” Martha explained, still looking at Terra with open betrayal.

Terra couldn’t deny it. The proof was in the deformed, decaying pudding.

==TTW==

“My masterpiece, Doctor. A living TARDIS, strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and the future to collide in infinite majesty.” The Master cheered. “I can still remember how loud Terra screamed when I showed her. It was  _ magnificent _ .”

“But you’re changing history. Not just Earth, the entire universe.” The Doctor argued.

“I’m a Time Lord. I have that right.” The Master argued.

Lucy was still standing in place. The entire conversation seemed to be going over her head. Quill was seated. Her expression blank- or maybe thoughtful?

“But even then, why come all this way just to destroy?” The Doctor asked.

“ _ We come backwards in time all to build a brand new empire lasting one hundred trillion years.” _

“With me as their master, and Terra as their repair girl.” The Master explained. “Time Lords and humans combined. Haven’t you always dreamt of that, Doctor?”

==TTW==

“But what about us? We’re the same species. Why do you kill so many of us?” Milligan asked the head.

“Because it’s fun! Right Mummy? It’s fun isn’t it, Mummy!” He laughed.

Terra flinched back. “Shut up shut up SHUT UP!”

She pulled out her gun. The humans cowered away as Terra shot the head. 

She fell to her knees, crying in the silence that followed. “He made me do it. Eighteen months...all alone...nobody but him and the Toclafane to talk to...it hurt. It was my fault- should’ve stopped him, should’ve stopped him.”

“Then  _ why _ !” Martha asked.

“The Master said...he said he’d hurt you.” Terra explained. “All my friends...all of humanity...I couldn’t choose. I couldn’t leave- he’d hurt you then too. He didn’t...I couldn’t  _ leave _ for  _ eighteen months _ .”

She started crying all over again.

==TTW==

“Human race, greatest monsters of them all.” The Master stood up with a beaming smile. “Night, then.”

He took Lucy by the arm, wrapping it around her waist before walking her out from there. Quill sat up in her seat.

“Is it movie night? I think it’s movie night.” Quill explained. “Did you want to watch Terra reliving the Battle of Canary Wharf, or when she first started working on Toclafane? It’s not the best found footage film. It’ll do in a pinch.”

The Doctor moved back in his cage. He sat in the center, not looking in Quill’s direction at all.

The doors were flung open. Every member of her little band came in.

“Boss.” Drax panted. “You gotta see what Groot found.”

“But  _ movie night _ .” Quill argued.

“Psychological warfare and retroactive guilt can wait.” Drax took the tablet from Groot, handing it to Quill.

The Doctor couldn’t see what was on it. All he could see was Quill’s complete nonreaction. “How recent?”

“Taken earlier today.” Groot answered. “Just before a patrol. This was probably their supply run.”

Quill nodded. She stood up, tapping the tablet with a fresh painted nail.

“Come on, we need to move to evac.” Drax explained. “We don’t know when he’ll move again,”

Quill looked to the Doctor. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he could feel the hatred in them.

“Quill.” Gamora called out. “We gotta go- you know that.”

The woman sighed, lowering her head. The Doctor glared at her. She looked back up to the Doctor.

“Do you know why I came here, Doctor?” Quill asked. “Why the Master let me stick around? I can tell you if you’d like.”

“Quill.” Drax started. “Don’t-”

Quill held up her hand. Drax’s mouth closed with a click.

The Doctor glared up at her. 

“I told him cause Terra was my friend- way before you. That, that I wanted to see her hurt. That’s partly true.” Quill explained. “Getting the Master to burn South Carolina, torturing the Jones family, even Jack. Those are all bonuses. I really just wanted to see  _ you _ .”

She tossed the tablet behind her. Groot caught it, fumbling with it before having a proper hold. 

“I’m going to kill your friend.” Quill answered. The Doctor’s small fist curled. Behind her, her team fell into a circle formation. “I’m gonna kill her and it’s gonna be fun. And I can’t wait for it. Someday in your future I’m going to kill her. I’ve seen it. It’s one of those fixed points you Time Lords apparently love so much.”

Quill was starting to get excited, animated as she went on in her speech. She knelt in front of the cage. Even through the sunglasses, the Doctor could tell her eyes were full of mania.

“But I don’t like to make it  _ quick _ . I like to make it slow- to let it simmer, boil.” Quill explained. “I want you to watch helplessly as she gets closer and closer to  _ me _ . I want you to stay up at night terrified, by what’s in store for your friend. I want you to watch, as every little action you do to stop it brings it closer. I wanted to get to the point where you can’t even tell which of us  _ kills her _ .”

The Doctor continued to glare. His tiny fists shaking with the saint’s level of restraint.

“And I want you to know- above all else- that I enjoyed it. That I enjoyed every second you spent miserable, every second you spent losing your mind, suffering. I enjoyed it because I am looking at your face right now- hehehe. And it makes every little thing worth it.” Quill promised. “I’m going to kill Terra Johnson and it’s going to be  _ fun _ .”

She stood back up. She skipped over to her team.

“Enjoy yourself?” Groot asked dryly.

“Immensely.” Quill replied. She straightened out her black jacket. “Groot, take off your filter. It’s weird seeing you as a person.”

Groot groaned. They pushed a button on a device on her side. The filter switched off. Instead of a simple faced human, they were a dark wood tree-person. 

Drax held up his arm. A Vortex Manipulator on waiting there. The five of them held on.

“I hate this thing.” Gamora complained. “Can’t I stay and torture Jack?”

“No. I’ve got a different mission for  _ you _ .” Quill explained. “It’s still torture, you’ll love it.”

The five of them vanished before the Doctor’s eyes. He wouldn’t miss them. He would instead wait...wait and search for them in his and Terra’s lives.

_ ‘Fixed point’ _ , that woman had no idea what that even was. She didn’t know what she was talking about, or who she was threatening. Terra Johnson was not so easily felled. The Doctor was certain. 

==TTW==

“I think it’s time we had the truth, Miss Johnson.” Docherty demanded.

She never moved so swiftly, tucking the gun back in her Bag. Terra blew out a breath. Finally, something relaxing.

“The legend says you’ve travelled the world to find a way of killing the Master. Tell us, is it true?” Docherty asked.

Terra’s hand was still in the Bag. Her hand held the gun she finished building on the boat ride over.

Martha was in the room too. She never looked in Terra’s direction. It broke something deep in Terra. She felt adrift- cut off from air. 

_ (Martha was right to hate Terra. Terra ruined Earth. Everything she touched on this planet had become cursed. Everything had gone so wrong. Terra was the  _ real  _ monster) _

“Just before we escaped, the Doctor told us.” Martha explained. “The Doctor and the Master, they’ve been coming to Earth for years. And they’ve been watched. There’s UNIT and Torchwood, all studying Time Lords in secret.”

“We made  _ her _ .” Terra pulled the gun out. She was proud of it. A fully functioning gun, with a built in useless chamber just for the chemicals. Well the chemicals weren’t entirely useless. They were heavy doses of liquid aspirin. The food coloring- pink, blue, orange- were for added effect. “Ain’t she pretty?”

“All I need to do is get close.” Milligan held up his own gun. “Shoot him with this.”

Terra pulled it back. “Nah, you won’t. I gave humanity my word.”

“Actually, you can put those down now, thank you very much.” Docherty requested. She moved forward, lowering the gun nozzles to the table.

Terra nodded. “Killing Time Lords isn’t easy. We come back, regenerate. There are ways to kill them for good.”

“Ah, the Master’s immortal. Wonderful.” Docherty huffed.

“Nobody is.” Terra pointed to the vials. “Each of these is filled with something known to kill Time Lords. I’ve done a ton of research- there are four big ones.” Her sister helped, obviously.

Terra remembered it so well. During Darcy’s first watch of this episode, Darcy wondered what actually  _ could  _ kill a Time Lord. A few hours online, multiple fan wikis later, Darcy could’ve made the gun if she wanted.

“She’s perfect. I wanna name her  _ ‘D-B’ _ ” Terra cheered. “For ‘dead body’ but that means other things that are less exciting. I’ll find a better one.”

“Four, like four chemicals? You’ve only got three.” Milligan pointed out.

“For now.” Terra answered. “Time Lords are crafty things.”

“The contents were kept safe.” Martha explained. “Scattered across the world, and we found them. San Diego, Beijing, Budapest and London.”

“Then where is it?” Milligan asked.

“There’s an old UNIT base, north London. I’ve found the access codes.” Martha explained. “Tom, you’ve got to get me there.”

“We can’t get across London in the dark. It’s full of wild dogs. We’ll get eaten alive.” Milligan explained. “We can wait till the morning, then go with the medical convoy.”

“You can spend the night here, if you like.” Docherty offered.

Terra may be clinically insane, but she wasn’t  _ stupid _ . 

“No, we can get halfway, stay at the slave quarters in Bexley.” Milligan held up his hand. Docherty shook it. “Professor, thank you.”

“And you. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Martha gave her a thankful kiss on the cheek before walking out.

Terra gave a quick curtsy. 

“Terra, if it comes down to it, could you do it? Could you actually kill him?” Docherty called out. 

Terra smiled, skipping over towards Martha and Milligan.  _ “She should keep in mind, she should keep in mind, there is nothing I do better than revenge.” _

==TTW==

Milligan brought them to a house. The snuck through the darkness, avoiding guards and everyone. There was one house that Milligan approached, panickedly knocking on the door. “Let me in. It’s Milligan.”

The door was thrown open. All three snuck in. The whole place was packed with people. Terra compared it to all the others they had seen around the world, the times she’d seen it in  _ Turn Left. _

“Did you bring food?” The woman at the door asked.

“Couldn’t get any, and I’m starving.” Milligan explained.

“All we’ve got is water.”

“I’m sorry.” Martha told them.

Terra walked through the crowd as she could. Every part of it was filled with people. 

Milligan walked up behind her. “It’s cheaper than building barracks. Pack them in, a hundred in each house, ferry them off to the shipyards every morning.”

“Are you Terra?” Someone asked from the stairs.q

Terra smiled at the teenager. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Can you do it? Can you kill him?” The teen asked. Terra smiled, comfortingly. “They said you can kill the Master, can you? Tell us you can do it. Please, tell us you can do it.”

Terra was about to answer. It seemed the teenager’s question got everyone else excited. Everyone started asking questions. 

“Come on, just leave her alone.” Milligan tried to quiet everyone down. “She’s exhausted.”

“People are asking me to speak. Who am I to deny them?” Terra asked. Milligan hesitated, before nodding.

She sat herself down on the stairs, everyone moving to make room.

“I’ve travelled your world, time and time again.” Terra explained. Everyone listened with reverence. Martha was waiting for her to start singing. “All the parts of the world...destroyed by him. Europe, Japan...New York...” Terra pulled on her sleeve, letting out a sigh. “Everywhere there were humans, living just like you. I’m a legend now but I know someone better, someone more worthy of it.  _ The Doctor. _ He saved your lives- has been for as long as he’s known the Earth. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I’ve seen him. He’s my friend. He’s my best friend, the only family I have. And I know what he can do.”

She explained the rest. The mission- the way to stop the Master. 

The door was thrown open. 

“It’s him!” The leader of the house came in, panting in fear. “It’s him! Oh my God, it’s him! It’s the Master. He’s here.”

“But he never comes to Earth. He never walks upon the ground.” The teenager dismissed.

“Hide them!” The leader instructed. Martha was pulled into the living room.

Milligan handed the people on the stairs his coat. “Use this.”

Terra pulled it over her head. Her hearts were racing. She was... _ so close _ .

“He walks among us, our lord and master.”

“Terra and Martha. Terra Johnson. Martha Jones. I can see you two!” Terra shuddered. “Out you come, little girls. Come and meet your Master. Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing? Positions. I’ll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself. What would the Doctor do?”

Terra threw off the sack. She climbed down the stairs, watching to the door.

“Terra-” Milligan tried to stop her.

Terra shook her head. “I can- I can do it.”

Martha walked up to her. “You’re not going alone.”

It was so kind, Terra took a breath of fresh air. 

Together they walked out. 

The Master was there. Terra smiled at him. The Master applauded them. “Oh, yes. Oh, very well done. Good girls. He trained you well. But so did I.” He held up his arm. “Bag. Give me your bag.”

Terra tilted her head.

“Now.” The Master ordered.

Terra pulled it off.

“No, stay there. Just throw it.”

Terra did so. “Give it your best shot.”

The Master pulled out his laser sonic. He fired it at the Bag.

The Bag only bounced off the ground. It flung itself over to Terra.

Terra beamed. She threw it again. “No try it again- it’s sure to work twice!”

The Master glared. He stormed up, snatching the Bag off the ground. “And now, good companion, your work is done.”

He aimed his sonic at Martha.

Terra stepped to the side. “Don’t!” She ordered.

The Master tilted his head. “Why not?”

“Because-” Terra swallowed. “She’s the Doctor’s companion too. Shouldn’t he watch? Watch you take over the galaxy, her corpse lying where it all began?”

The Master paused. “Hmm...a clever idea as always, Terra Johnson.” He breathed in deep through his nose. Terra waited to see what happened. “Almost dawn, Terra, and planet Earth marches to war.”

==TTW==

Terra was back in the conference hall. Nothing much had changed. There was a tent. And a cage.

The Jones family was there. That wasn’t different than last time. Lucy was there in a new dress. The dress didn’t suit her. Nor did the messenger bag in her hands. Jack looked a lot dirtier.

“Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe.” The Master announced.

The guard tapped Terra’s shoulder, shoving her forward.

The Doctor was smiling at her. Terra smiled thankfully at him. 

Terra held her head up. She would face him head-on. Today would be his last day. She’d fix the Earth.

She walked to the front of the room. Martha stopped right at her side. 

The Master stood at the top of the stairs. “Your teleport device, in case you thought I’d forgotten.”

Terra shook her head. “It was in my Bag, Master-Sir.”

“You expect me to believe that?” The Master asked. 

“No.” Terra replied. She reached into her skirt pocket. “You’re about to win. I don’t like that it’s easy.”

The Master gave a fake smile. Terra tossed it over to him.

“And now, kneel.”

Terra glared at him. Martha followed the order. Terra hesitated.

_ It’s just for a minute _

_ I’m not letting him win _

_ Not today. _

Terra knelt down. She was glaring up at the Master the whole time. 

“Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?” The Master rushed up to a computer screen. He pressed a button. 

“ _ The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!” _ A man replied.

“Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down.” The Master pointed to a countdown clock.

Terra was so excited. Anticipation buzzed beneath her skin. She was fighting the urge to lash out now, 

“I never could resist a ticking clock. Children, are you ready?” The Master called out.

“ _ We will fly and blaze and slice. We will fly and blaze and slice.”  _ The Toclafane announced.

“At zero, to mark this day, the child Martha Jones, will die. My first blood.” The Master preened. “Any last words?”

Martha was quiet. 

“No?” The Master turned to Terra. “You? Anything? No song?”

Terra held back the urge. She could totally spit out a whole Veggietales song. It would be annoying- it would piss him off. 

“Such a disappointment, these two.” The Master turned to the Doctor. “Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could  _ absorb the time vortex _ . These one are useless.”

He came back to the other two. Terra looked to the Doctor, meeting his eyes.

“Bow your head.” The Master ordered. He pointed the sonic at Martha. “And so it falls to me, as Master of all-”

_ I’m losing it _

“-to establish from this day-”

_ I’m literally losing it _

“-a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward-”

“Ha!” Terra clapped her hand over her mouth.

The Master stopped, rolling his eyes again at her actions. “What. What’s so funny this time?”

Terra laughed again. “You- you bought that? That- that we wandered the planet for a  _ gun _ ?” She laughed. 

Martha laughed too. “A gun in four parts.”

“Yeah! Yeah a four part gun.” Terra laughed. 

“Yes, and I took it from you.” The Master argued.

“A gun in four parts scattered across the world?” Terra was starting to laugh like mad. “I mean, come on, did you really believe that? Only the Avatar can combine the four like that.”

“What do you mean?” The Master asked. 

“As if I would ask them to kill.” The Doctor countered.

“She’s ignored you in the past!” The Master “Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got them exactly where I want them.”

“But I knew Professor Docherty would rat us out. The Rebellion knew about her son. I told her about the gun, so she’d get us here at the right time.” Terra explained.

“Oh, but you and the girlie are still going to die.” The Master argued.

Terra grinned, rising to her feet. It felt so good to know we managed to trick him. “Don’t you want to know what I was doing, travelling the world?”

The Master threw his hands up. He sat down on the steps. “Tell me.”

“I did what I do best. Tell stories.” Terra answered, cheery. “ _ The pen is mightier than the sword _ , after all. I went across the continents, Martha by my side. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them our story. I told them about the Doctor. And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor.”

The Master scoffed. “Faith and hope? Is that all?”

Terra shook her head, smiling at him. “No, because we gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said. I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time.”

“Nothing will happen.” The Master brushed off. “Is that your weapon?  _ Prayer _ ?”

Terra continued from where she left off. “Right across the world, in word, just one thought at one moment...but with fifteen satellites that I managed as the IT girl!”

His eyes widened in fear. It was all clicking in his head. “What?”

“The Archangel Network.” Jack added for the Master.

“A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time.” Terra cheered. “And that word is  _ Doctor _ .” She snorted. “I don’t know what that’s gonna do, but I know it’ll be a showstopper. Let’s see... _ Doctor _ .”

“Doctor.” Martha repeated.

The Doctor began to  _ glow.  _ The glow made him hover in his cage. The cage itself fading away in the effect.

“Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don’t.” The Master ordered. 

“Doctor. Doctor.” Jack repeated. 

Francine joined in. “Doctor.”

“Don’t.” The Master ordered.

_ “Doctor, Doctor, give me the news.” _ Terra sang.

“Stop this right now. Stop it!” He yelled.

Soon, everyone began to chant it. Over and over. The humans all believed in it. The people of Earth  _ fought back. _

The Doctor floated up from his former cage. The glow brightened, his body growing back to his normal height. “I’ve had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices.” 

“I opened the door for him!” Terra revealed with a laugh.

“I order you to stop!” The Master shouted. 

“The one thing you can’t do. Stop them  _ thinking _ .” The Doctor explained, a sad but proud look deep in his eyes. “Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this.”

As the Master gawked in horror, Terra ran. She rushed towards Lucy. 

“Hey!” Terra pointed towards the Bag. “Give it back.”

Lucy dropped it over the rail. Terra caught it, hugging the Bag to her chest. “Oh, I love you.”

“No!” The Master yelled. He raised his sonic. He fired it at the Doctor.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The Doctors apologized.

The Master seethed. “Then I’ll kill  _ her _ .” He moved the sonic towards Terra.

The Doctor threw his hand out. The energy reached out, forcing the sonic out of the Master’s hand.

The Master was less than pleased. “You can’t do this. You can’t do it. It’s not fair!”

Terra ran over to Jack. The man welcomed her for a hug. Jack kisses her head, Terra pressed her face into his shoulder.

“And you know what happens now.” The Doctor explained. He floated over towards the Master.

“No! No! No! No!” The Master began cowering back.

“You wouldn’t listen.”

“No!”

“Because you know what I’m going to say.”

“No.” The Master hid by the wall. He curled himself up to hide from the Doctor.

It did no good. The Doctor knelt down by his side. Terra ended the hug, looking towards the Time Lords.

“I forgive you.”

The Master hissed. “My children!”

“ _ Protect the paradox-”  _ The Toclafane shouted.

“Buttface, go save the TARDIS!” Terra ordered. 

“Yes ma’am!” Jack spoke to the guards in the room. “You men, with me!”

As they ran off, the Master pulled out the manipulator. Terra ran towards them.

“No!” The Doctor yelled. 

They vanished. Terra swore, rushing over towards the computer panel.

“ _ Son of a bitch. _ ” Terra sang. She typed on the screen. “Children to Mummy, children to Mummy, do you come in?”

_ “Protect the paradox protect the-” _

“Mummy says shut the hell up.” Terra instructed.

Martha rushed to her side. “What have we got?”

“Six billion of my pseudo children are coming to kill us, the Master vanished, but Jack’s gonna shoot the TARDIS until she’s better.”

Martha nodded. “Great.”

Terra pressed another button. “Hey! Kids! Don’t kill Jack- that’s bad.”

None of her children were listening. Terra would have to work on that when she had kids. 

All of a sudden, the computer stopped showing the Toclafane. Terra felt the reason behind that shift. Her mind was suddenly filled up- something existing there that hadn’t for a long while.

_ She’s back _

_ She’s all better _

_ Hello, Idris _

There was something so healing about hearing that box again. The TARDIS sang in her mind, songs that lifted up my heart and empowered me. It was beautiful and hopeful enough to drive her to tears. Terra wiped them away, gripping the computer to keep from sinking to her knees.

Good thing she was holding it. No sooner had the TARDIS replied to Terra, did everything start to  _ shake _ . The Jones family all cried out, grabbing onto the nearest thing. Martha was used to it.

Terra let go of the computer. The Doctor would be back any second.

The  _ Valiant  _ was thrown off again. The ship veered. It tipped her off her feet.

The Doctor caught Terra. They both laughed. Their minds connected for a moment, they laughed there too. “Everyone get down! Time is reversing!”

Martha fell over, joining the both of them. All three of them beamed at each other. The ship was spinning all about, everything inside flying around them. 

_ We were winning. _

After so much spinning in finally slowed down. Terra took a deep breath. The date clicking in her head.

_ Election Day _ .

Terra smiled at the Doctor. He laughed, like everything was brilliant. He hopped to his feet.

“Oh hey, it’s the hand.” As the Doctor went to the computer, Terra grabbed the hand. 

“The paradox is broken.” The Doctor announced. The humans shakily got up to their feet. “We’ve reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning.” He flipped a switch.

_ “This is UNIT Central. What’s happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated.” _

“Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was.” The Doctor explained.

“All Toclafane were sent back to the end of time. There was no paradox bringing them here, after all.” Terra explained, preempting Martha’s question. 

“But I can remember it.” Francine asked, confused that her memories were still there.

“We’re at the eye of the storm. The only ones who’ll ever know.” The Doctor glanced for the closest person to him. “Oh, hello. You must be Mister Jones. We haven’t actually met.”

“You had a whole year to talk to him.” Terra pointed out.

The Doctor clicked his tongue. “I was busy. It’s a lot of work, getting yourself into the matrices.”

“It took me three days.” Terra countered.

“Well that’s- that’s not- you probably cheated.”

Terra laughed. Terra laughed because it felt  _ good  _ to laugh. Running up to him, Terra threw herself into a hug. The Doctor gladly hugged her back, laughing. He lifted her up for the spin.

_ ‘I’m not ever letting you do it again!’ _

_ ‘Of course, Terra, wouldn’t dream of it.’ _

“Whoa, big fella!” At the door, Jack grabbed a fleeing Master. “You don’t want to miss the party. Cuffs.” He matched him forward.

Ending the hug, Terra hopped down the stairs. 

“So, what do we do with this one?” Jack asked.

“We kill him.” Clive offered. 

“We execute him.” Tish offered.

“No, that’s not the solution.” The Doctor scolded.

Francine had found a gun, fallen from a guard’s belt in the storm. “Oh, I think so. Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them.”

“Go on. Do it.” The Master challenged.

“Francine, you’re better than him.” The Doctor told her. He went to take the gun from her. Terra walked past him, standing vigilant. 

The Master narrowed his eyes at me, grinning still. Terra smiled her usual smile, trying and succeeding to weird him out. 

Terra didn’t look back to see the Doctor get the gun, or hand Francine off to Martha. There was no need to see that. What mattered was keeping an eye on  _ him. _ The carpet was still here. 

“You still haven’t answered the question. What happens to me?” The Master asked.

“You’re our responsibility from now on.” The Doctor explained. He took the spot at her side. Both of them now stoic, probably being properly Time Lord. Or just looking the part. “The only Time Lord left in existence.”

“We can’t trust him, ya know.” Terra reminded him.

“No. The only safe place for him is the TARDIS.” The Doctor explained. 

She knew it would make him sad. He always got so depressed when remembering home.

She knew it would make her the only connection that he had, and that she was shit compared to the Master.

She knew it would make her no better than him.

If these years taught her anything, it’s that this Terra was no hero. She was just good at hiding it.

So she stood at the end of a hall, backing up to hide among the humans. None of them noticed her. Why would they? She snuck Francine’s stolen gun off the floor, slipping it into Lucy’s hand.

“Shh.” Terra whispered, spinning back further.

Lucy stayed quiet and still. Lucy stared at it in dazed confusion. Worse than being drugged. At least  _ most  _ drug hazes were by choice.

Terra raised up her arm.

_ ‘Front sight.’ _ She mouthed.

“You mean you’re just going to keep me?” The Master asked, grimacing in disgust.

“Mmm. If that’s what I have to do. It’s time to change.” The Doctor explained.

_ ‘Trigger press.’ _

“Maybe I’ve been wandering for too long. Now I’ve got someone to care for.”

_ ‘Follow through.’ _

The Master fell with no fanfare.

People turned back. They only saw Lucy with a gun in her hand.

Nobody noticed Terra, walking cool as could be back to the Doctor’s side. The weapon vanished- like it was never there at all. 

The Doctor was hugging his old friend. The Master was getting weaker by the second. “There you go. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

The Master was almost glowing. Terra saw his hand shimmering. “Always the ladies.”

“I didn’t see her.” The Doctor pleaded.

“Dying in your arms. Happy now?” The Master asked.

Terra couldn’t tell which of them he was asking. She was pleased as punch. 

“You’re not dying. Don’t be stupid. It’s only a bullet. Just regenerate.” The Doctor pleaded.

The Master stiffened in his arms, glaring up at the Doctor. “No.” The glow in his hand petered out.

“One little bullet. Come on.” The Doctor pleaded.

“I guess you don’t know me so well. I refuse.” The Master challenged.

“Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please. Please! Just regenerate. Come on.” The Doctor asked.

“And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with  _ you two _ ?” The Master countered, grimacing in distaste.

“You’ve got to. Come on. It can’t end like this. You and me, all the things we’ve done. Axons. Remember the Axons? And the Daleks.” The Doctor tried to get him back. The Master was a stubborn Time Lord. Terra was thankful he was gone. “We’re the only three left. There’s no one else. Regenerate!”

“How about that. I win.” The Master became somber for a moment. One fleeting moment, too late after everything else he had done. “Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?”

“No!”

_ Well it’s the correct answer. _

The Master fell still.

The Doctor cried.

==TTW==

_ Terra’s Homeworld _

Sarah Spencer was assistant principal to a school. A good school, so she thought.

She was on the phone right now. A parent from the school was calling, thinking about bringing her second daughter to shadow the school. Sarah was eager to bring in new students. It was always so rewarding to bring kids someplace safe, where they could grow into the person God wanted them to be.

She was just about to schedule the date before someone cleared their throat. Sarah held back a sigh. Turning back, she saw her elusive eldest child.

For the record, Sarah didn’t hate her daughter. The teenager was just clearly very deep in her teen angst phase. Sarah remembered it well. She just never remembered having that much attitude. Everything was an argument or an issue. Her daughter took everything too personally- as if whatever Sarah or her husband said were the harshest insults.

Her daughter was leaning against the wall, her foot tapping it. Her face was pointed to her chest, not looking up to see if her mother was acknowledging her. Her daughter was pulling at her sleeves, tugging them enough to stretch the fabric. Sarah was always buying her new shirts because she kept stretching them out. “Mom, can we-”

Sarah held up a finger. She pointed to her ear, which had her phone against it. Her daughter wilted slightly. Sarah had to keep talking. “Excuse me one moment.”

_ “Oh sure, Sarah!” _

Sarah pulled the phone down. She narrowed her eyes at her eldest. “Can this wait? This is an important call.”

Her daughter gave a sullen nod. Honestly, did it need that much attitude? The teenager was acting like it was a much bigger deal than a simple reschedule. “I’ll just...give Dad my math homework.” The teen walked back up the stairs, probably to ignore the family the rest of the night. She was so dramatic.

This also confused Sarah. Hadn’t her husband said Morgan left her notebook at school? Sarah brushed it off, thinking that her daughter always had a funny relationship with telling the truth.

Sarah lifted the phone back to her ear.

“Sorry. That was my daughter. You know how teenagers are. Now, Mrs Bellingham, we were talking about admitting Caroline?”

Upstairs, her daughter was hugging her twin sister. Darcy was fighting back the impulse to run downstairs, knife at the ready. 

==TTW==

_ Whoniverse _

We were all standing in Cardiff. Just around the Torchwood facility. It felt weird standing so close, knowing that cause I knew the boss I could walk in with no fanfare. 

Had his team come back yet? I feel like I should check that. It seemed like one of those things you’re supposed to ask when time resets. 

We had the Master’s funeral the night before. It was the best night sleep I’d gotten in two years. 

Yeah going home so I could talk to Mrs Spencer ruined it. Why had I even done it? I knew the Master hadn’t really killed them. They were safe in a whole other reality. The Master could never even touch them. Why had I checked?

Guess it was fine Mrs Spencer was working. Mr Spencer too. If either of them were free, I would’ve embarrassed myself in front of them. They might’ve asked questions- they never have before, but they might have this time. Darcy saw me breaking down, that was enough embarrassment for one day thanks. 

I was leaning on a handrail, looking towards the beautiful blue box. That TARDIS, healing up quite nicely. She was my favorite box in the whole wide worlds.

Jack came to my side.

“You’re team back yet?”

“They’ll be here tomorrow.” Jack explained.

“They don’t have a teleporting ship? Jack, Buttface, come on. Get them the good stuff.” I chided.

“Oh what, like those are just laying around.” Jack pointed out.

“Then make one. I can’t be seen with someone so behind on the times.” I clicked my tongue, shaking my head. “You gotta think about  _ the future _ .”

Jack laughed. He walked next to me, pausing to lean on the hand rail. “Terra.”

“Mmhm?”

“I know what happened.” Jack revealed. 

“Hmm?” I really hope he wasn’t talking about crying in front of Darcy. That’d be awkward. Or that Mrs Spencer ignored me in a time of distress. That would also be awkward.

“Lucy didn’t fire that gun.” Jack revealed.

That set me on edge. Jack wouldn’t expose me- not Jack. He had to have known what my years were like. I warned my right to get back. “Obviously she did. Who else had a gun in their hand?”

Jack gave me a long stare for a moment. I met that stare, smiling as carefree as a child. Jack could see it now, see the hardness that I had been forced to wear. The stress those years put me through. He stood up straight, thinking.

“Lucy Saxon is missing. Apparently they’re saying she just ran out the door.” Jack added.

“A shame.” I shook my head, clicking my tongue. “People should pay for the wrongs they’ve done.”

He met my stare again. “Yeah. He did.”

Jack and I exchanged a long, emotional look. Us sharing our pain, our experiences, without saying a word. In his eyes I saw a year of torture, of pain that went more than skin deep. There was pain and sadness but also hope and relief and joy. 

I reached for him first. Jack moves too. Both of us met for another affirming hug. Again, Jack kisses my head. 

“By the way-” Jack began, smiling into my hair. “-love the dress.”

That ended the hug perfectly. I pulled back to punch his arm. Jack laughed. I joined in.

“Oh, I missed something.” The Doctor teased as he walked over. Martha trailed after him.

“Nothing much.” I lied. Then I turned to the now bustling city of Cardiff. “Just chattin’, what’ve you been doing?”

The Doctor stood at my side. Him and Martha watched the crowd. “The TARDIS will be all fixed soon. She’s fixing herself up just right.”

“Huzzah!” I cheered.

“Time was, every single one of these people knew your name.” Martha pointed out. “Now they’ve all forgotten you.”

“Good.” The Doctor replied.

Jack sighed- pretending like it was a bad thing to work with Ianto. “Back to work.” He climbed through the rails, walking off.

“No. Wait.” I reached out.  _ ‘Doctor? Please. Doctor please please-’ _

_ ‘I was already going to say yes.’ _

_ ‘Really?!’ _

_ ‘Yes.’  _ “I really don’t mind, though. Come with us.” The Doctor offered.

“Mighty tempting offer.” Jack admitted. “I had plenty of time to think that past year, the  _ year that never was _ , and I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility.”

“Hey. Hey. I’m so proud of you.” I told him, pointing at Jack. “Defender of the Earth.”

“Can’t argue with that.” The Doctor reaches over, taking Jack’s wrist. He used the sonic on the manipulator.

“Hey, I need that.”

“Yeah he needs that!” 

“I can’t have you walking around with a time travelling teleport.” The Doctor told us. “You could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologise.”

“Yeah...I hate that it makes sense.” 

“And what about me?” Jack asked. “Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?”

Chills went over me. The Face of Boe’s final words echoed, all the times I’d seen him settled with an uncomfortable weight on my chest.

All those good times...all the smiles and fond memories...all ending in grief.

“Nothing I can do. You’re an  _ impossible thing _ , Jack.” The Doctor remarked.

Jack smiled and laughed. “Been called that before.” He started to walk away, stopping to turn and salute us. “Ma’am.”

I nodded at him. My best reply was a curtsy. 

“Sir. Ma’am.” Jack tried to leave again, stopping to talk to me. “But I keep wondering. What about aging? Because I can’t die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?”

“Hmm...I have an idea. But I don’t think you’re going to like my answer.” I replied.

_ ‘Do you actually know?’ _ The Doctor asked, laughing.

_ ‘...I do.’ _

“Okay, vanity. Sorry.” Jack excused. “Yeah, can’t help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula.”

“Yeah _. _ ..sounds right.” I repeated.

“Tiny little place.” Jack explained. “I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me.  _ The Face of Boe _ , they called me. Hmm. I’ll see you.”

He walked away, his cost blowing in the wind.

“Son of a bitch.” I praised him.

“No.” The Doctor gawked. 

“It can’t be.” Martha joined in. 

“No. Definitely not. No. No. Terra? No.” The Doctor asked. Martha started laughing, incredulous.

“He was.” I replied. “He told me right before...that idiot. HEY BUTTFACE!”

Jack turned around.

“Give Ianto a kiss for me!”

Jack laughed. He walked away, this time not coming back.

He was gone.

The Doctor reached for my shoulder. I turned from it, not ready for any kind of comfort. Let’s just get on a space Titanic. Get this whole fucking awful day overwith.

I wanna see Wilfred Mott, dammit. That’s something I’ve earned.

==ROTF==

The Jones family was settling back in at home. Francine gave us the impression we were not invited inside. 

We watched them bond and settle. As that happened, I slipped into the TARDIS. The console room was back to its golden yellow glow, the center a faint green. All the wires the Master put in had vanished.

The Doctor walked in after me. He tossed his coat aside on the coral. I sat myself down on the pilot seat.

“How’s the blue?” He asked, motioning to his suit. 

“Mhmm.” I replied, sliding my hands in my dress pockets. 

The Doctor walked around the console. He twisted various bits and bobs as he went. He paused by my feet. “Where’s my hand?”

I pointed to his arms.

“No, no I mean the other hand. My third hand.” The Doctor explained.

The fact that sentence existed got a giggle out of me. Opening my Bag, I reached in. The hand case came out. It was placed right below the console.

_ This would turn into a Metacrisis. _

_ It’ll be a Doctor clone. _

_ It’ll lead to the murder of Don- _

“Terra. Are you alright?” The Doctor asked.

“Are you?” I countered.

The Doctor sat himself down next to me. He propped his legs up on the console. Out of solidarity, I joined him. Both of us stared up at the metallic ceiling in silence.

The door opened. Martha walked in.

The Doctor and I sat up. We peeked around the console to watch her walk up. We hopped off the pilot seat, moving around the place like we hadn’t experienced a sad emotion in our lives. 

“Right then, off we go. The open road.”

“ _ Like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway!” _

“There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio.”

“Oh that sounds pretty! Let’s go there- straight there!”

“Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look?”

Martha didn’t answer. Or the Doctor didn’t give her time. The look on her face wasn’t really giving Terra happy feelings.

“Or back in time. We could, I don’t know, Charles the Second?” The Doctor wondered.

“Egypt! We could see Queen Nefertiti!” I offered.

The Doctor nodded, approving. “Great idea! Oh- or I know. What about Agatha Christie?”

“That’s magnificent!”  _ I mean I hate giant wasps and it’ll give me nightmares but yes! _

“I’d love to meet Agatha Christie. I bet she’s brilliant.” The Doctor cheered.

We turned to Martha. Her frown had only gotten wider. The discomfort in my chest only grew. She changed it to a regretful, mourning smile for our sakes. It did nothing. I still felt like shit.

“Okay.”

“I just can’t.” Martha admitted. 

“Yeah.” The Doctor replied. 

“We get it.” I held the console unit, silently begging the TARDIS to help. Give Martha a reason to stay. I can’t lose her...I don’t want to lose her.

“Spent all these years training to be a doctor.” Martha explained. “Now I’ve got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they’re devastated. I can’t leave them.”

“No, no yeah.” I reached my hair, brushing it back. 

“Of course not.” The Doctor braced his shoulders. 

“Martha Jones.” I breathed, walking up to her. “ _ Thank you  _ wouldn’t be enough.”

The Doctor joined in on the hug. “We’ll try it anyway...Thank you, Martha Jones, you saved the world.”

Martha squeezed us both. She ended the hug, stepping back. “Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what?  _ I am good. _ ”

_ No you’re not _

_ You’re better _

_ You’re so much better... _

“You going to be alright?” Martha asked us.

“Yeah.” I lied. 

“Always. Yeah.” The Doctor lies too.  _ Solidarity.  _

“Right then. Bye.” Martha leaned forward, giving him a peck on the cheek. 

All she gave me was a pat on the arm

The discomfort grew again. It got cold, so very cold. 

She started towards the door. She stopped, turning back to us. I knew it wasn’t her deciding to come back. My hearts soared with hope regardless.

“Because the thing is, it’s like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him.”

_ I love him to bits! _

_ I love him to bits! _

“Is this going anywhere?” The Doctor asked. 

“Yes. Because he never looked at her twice.” Martha explained. The Doctor shifted on his feet, awkward. I couldn’t look away from Martha Jones. “I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted  _ years _ pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I  _ always _ said to her, time and time again, I said,  _ get out. _ So this is me, getting out.”

She turned to me. “You’ve got my number, yeah?”

“Always.” I replied.  _ Why would I ever even think to get rid of it? _

“Keep that, because I’m not letting you lot disappear.” Martha instructed. “If that rings,  _ when _ that rings, you’d better come running. Got it?”

“Got it.” I answered obediently.

_ I’ll make sure if it _

_ Why would I miss those three episodes with you? _

_ I’d go mad _

“I’ll see you again, Mister Smith, Miss Brown.” Martha told us. 

She stepped towards the door.

_ Wait _

Another step.

_ Don’t go _

Halfway gone

_ If I said it right now...would it mean anything? _

At the door

_ Would it make you wanna stay? _

She opened the door, walking through. 

I opened my mouth. “Wai-”

The door closed.

The discomfort turned to pain. A sharp, widespread  _ thing _ . It twisted and tore at me. I knew it was coming, why did it hurt so much?

“I’m sorry.” I blurted, staring at the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor looked over at me. “Sorry?” He asked, not repeating me but actually asking.

“I’m sorry for every time I made fun of you and Rose.” I apologized, still watching the door. They weren’t gonna open, she wasn’t coming back.

I could hear him walking closer, but I kept my eyes on the door. She wasn’t coming back, not really. She only comes once, and she’ll be engaged. She’ll leave after that, and I won’t see her until the Daleks come. Then I have to wait until the Doctor dies. I’ll never have Martha Jones back as a companion, and we’ll never get to spend time together again.

He put a hand on my shoulder. My lower lip was starting to quiver. I bit it to stop the shaking.

The Doctor made an understanding sigh. “Oh.”

I gasped, feeling air leave my lungs as I kept my eyes on that locked door. “Yep.” I took a deep shuddering breath. “I’m really sorry for laughing. This hurts a lot more than I expected.” I tried to keep steady breaths, but my voice was strained. “She never said, but I could see it. She was gonna leave after we fixed it. And she...she never looked at me twice either.”

The Doctor pulled me in for a hug. I let him.

“I don’t even know why I’m sad.” I hiccuped, feeling my hearts shake. “I knew it was coming.” Tears were coming, I could feel them coming faster than I could shove them down.

“Because you hoped it never would.” The Doctor voiced my thoughts, empathy in his voice. I let out one sob, pulling the next in before it could happen again. “You were hoping it would last forever, and you would never have to say goodbye, and now that it has it’s breaking your heart.”

“Oh.” Came my reply. It was followed by a painful sniffle. “Yeah. That’s what this is like.”

He kept hugging me. He didn’t lower his arms, not even to pilot the TARDIS. He loved doing that.

_ I loved her. _

_ ‘Can we just go?’ _ I begged.  _ ‘Please. I- I just wanna go.’ _

“Alright.” The Doctor reached for the console. I stepped back from him, wiping at my cheeks. “Alright, we’ll go. Somewhere random?”

“Yeah...I don’t mind.” I settled myself in the pilot seat.

The Doctor flipped the switch...and immediately crashed the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading this! I know it’s been a tough ride for not only Terra but for all of you too. Some of you have pointed out that it would be easy for Terra to have left the Master’s control at any point- both from her powers or just literally walking out the door, but I didn’t want that for this story. The truth is there are a lot of people on Earth that are going through situations a lot like Terra (I mean not exactly like her’s, they aren’t building death robots for a megalomaniac Time Lord, but you get the point). They are in relationships that are in many ways abusive, toxic, and unsafe.
> 
> I wanted to write a story where Terra had to go through it. Not ‘for the lolz’ but because I wanted to show a side of people that some ignore. The protagonist’s in stories are usually the first ones to stand up to abuse, or that fight back against the oppression. Not everyone can do that, and not everyone does. I wanted to write a story so people could see that you don’t have to be that brand of hero to stand against it.
> 
> Some of you did leave comments about the content itself being very upsetting. One person even said I wrote the dynamic accurately, which I’m taking as a mixed compliment. “Yay I wrote a toxic/abusive relationship with accuracy!...wait I wrote this with way too much accuracy-”
> 
> It’s important to me to show you guys that Terra isn’t the perfect hero, that she is flawed and has awful things happen to her that can be common on our Earth. A lot of stories I’ve seen had the writers bubble-wrap their OCs, and I wanted to push my character into rough spots.
> 
> Again- thanks to everyone that came through with me on this. Thanks to everyone that left comments, and who gave Terra the support she needed. Positive reinforcement and self-care are gonna help in-
> 
> To be continued in...My Ghosts Come Back. Came out probably while you were reading this.
> 
> Also, give the side-stories a chance. There are two! Hidden by Aliens is a story set in Season 1 of Torchwood- it has 1st Terra in it, and Jack! So, yay! Stories from the Haven. This is where I’ll put all the stories and one-shots that I can’t fit in the regular stories. Like more Reighley Ravaydark content and Terra Three making her dress!


End file.
